😂 Boss by profession: DFB referee elected mayor!

Florian Lechner is used to making the people around him dance to his tune. Fittingly, the DFB referee has now secured the position of mayor on the Baltic Sea island of Poel. From the center circle straight to the town hall, so to speak.

Lechner won the election against two female competitors with ease, and even in the first round. Such efficiency is something you can only dream of with video review, with which the 34-year-old is very familiar as a video referee in the Bundesliga!

But many football fans know Lechner not only from the Bundesliga. He has already made over 50 appearances in the 2nd Bundesliga, plenty of games in the third league, and also has DFB Cup experience.

However, Lechner did not appear in his referee uniform on his campaign poster, but instead was smartly dressed in a suit and sporting a broad winner’s smile. Of the roughly 2,200 eligible voters, more than half cast their vote, and 822 put their cross next to his name. So there was no debate about his victory, which is surely to the liking of the referee.

Lechner also sees many parallels between football and politics. “In both cases, it’s about making decisions, taking responsibility, and standing by what you say at the end of the day,” he is quoted as saying by 'Bild'.

Lechner is still regularly refereeing games, but from mid-May he will be setting the pace on Poel. The members of the local municipal council are already trembling at the thought of long stoppage times during their meetings.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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