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German CEO gifts Putin with team Germany football shirt and Soviet goalie figure

A German delegation has congratulated Putin on his birthday on behalf of the country's business community and presented him with a team Germany shirt and a figurine of the legendary Soviet goalkeeper

SOCHI, October 12. /TASS/. Chairman of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations Wolfgang Buchele has congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his birthday on behalf of the German business community and presented him with a German national team football shirt with the number 9 and a figurine of the legendary Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin.

"Dear Mr President, I don’t want to end my speech without congratulating you on your birthday on my behalf and on behalf of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. You and the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations are of the same age: you both were born in 1952. This unites us. A bit later, in 1954, Germany became a world football champion for the first time, and we, of course, hope that we will perform with equal success next year, in 2018," Buchele noted. In his opinion, the 2018 FIFA World Cup that will be hosted by Russia will bring Russia and Germany closer to each other. He expressed confidence that Russians and Germans will cheer for each other at the world championships.

After that, Buchele addressed Putin and said that he had brought a German national team football shirt with number 9, in which center forwards usually play, as a present to Putin, as well as a figurine of the best goalkeeper of the 20th century Lev Yashin as a good luck charm. "Let these two souvenirs bring you luck. Then we will surely meet at the final," Buchele told Putin. "Thank you very much," the Russian president said.

Lev Yashin (1929 -1990) nicknamed the ‘Black Spider’, was a goalkeeper for Dinamo Moscow FC and the Soviet national team. He is considered by many as the greatest goalie in football history and had an iconic status for revolutionizing the game of a goalkeeper.