German team rocked by gay slur

Germany's outstanding performance at the recent World Cup has been rocked by claims that some of its players are "a bunch of gays".

Worse, injured captain Michael Ballack's manager, Michael Becker, claims that was the reason for Germany's slick, stylish football.

Becker, who has been Ballack's agent for more than a decade, is said to have made the comment in the last edition of the German news magazine Der Spiegel.

In the report "New German Men", journalist Aleksander Osang mentioned that Becker "talked a lot about people who were envious of his client, because they were supposedly mediocre, ugly, untalented, bureaucratic, provincial, unmanly or gay. He told me some unbelievable stories..."

Osang added that his fellow journalists were rather blase about Becker's remarks as the homosexual conspiracy surrounding Joachim Loew's team was well known.

The Guardian reported that that Mr Becker credited Germany's new elegant style to the players' homosexuality, in contrast to the typically more aggressive and offensive German style of past years.

Becker has since neither confirmed nor denied his allegations, but said that he was "misunderstood" and that the interview was "not authorised".

The claims have cast a dark shadow on the superlative performances of the young Germany team, which surpassed all expectations to finish third in South Africa.

Worse, a captaincy wrangle between talismanic captain and most experienced player Michael Ballack, who was injured just before the tournament, and his stand-in Philipp Lahm is also threatening to mar the feel-good mood in Germany right now.

AP reports that the 33-year-old Ballack said the situation is clear - "I think I am still the national team captain", while Lahm says he has not intention of handing over the captain's armband even when Ballacks returns to fitness.

It now falls on coach Joachim Loew to stamp down his authority and find an amicable solution to it all before things get even more out of hand.

He can ill afford his promising team to have these unnecessary issues weigh down on their development.