ANN ARBOR \u2013 Michigan tight end Marlin Klein fell in love with football while growing up in Germany.<\/p>\n
Next year, football fans in his home country might not have to travel very far to watch his Wolverines kick off the 2026 season. Michigan is \u201cengaged in ongoing discussions\u201d to open next season against Western Michigan in Frankfurt<\/a> at Deutsche Bank Park, home of the Eintracht Frankfurt of the German soccer league Bundesliga.<\/p>\n If the game is moved to Germany, it would mark the first time the Wolverines play outside of North America. Michigan and Western Michigan were already scheduled to play on Sept. 5, 2026, in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n Klein, one of two Germans on Michigan\u2019s roster along with defensive lineman and Frankfurt native Manuel Beigel, is entering his fourth season at Michigan. He has another year of eligibility after 2025 since he redshirted as a freshman, but there\u2019s a chance he declares for the NFL draft after this year. Regardless of whether he returns to the Wolverines next year or not, it\u2019s a game he will be looking forward to. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Klein said last week of Michigan potentially playing in Germany. \u201cThere\u2019s people calling me, texting me who I haven\u2019t heard from since I moved here. A lot of people were too excited, because they thought it was happening in four weeks here. They were like, \u2018We\u2019re going to see you next month.\u2019 Yeah, no. But yeah, it\u2019s such a great opportunity for this university, the game of football, for Germany. You\u2019re really just spreading the game of football across the globe now, and for Michigan to be one of the universities, it\u2019s such a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n For other Michigan players like junior defensive back TJ Metcalf, it would be their first time making a trip outside of the United States. <\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t really thought about it too much,\u201d Metcalf said. \u201cI know if I do play in that game, it\u2019ll be exciting. But it\u2019s gonna be long travel though. I mean, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m excited for it. It will be something different.\u201d<\/p>\n Deutsche Bank Park, a 55,000-seat station also known as \u201cWaldstadion,\u201d has previously hosted five NFL games, but two FBS teams have never squared off in Germany. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s gonna be crazy, for sure,\u201d sophomore edge rusher Cameron Brandt said. \u201cI think that\u2019ll be really fun, especially, like, just going out there with the guys. I think that\u2019ll be fun, be a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone inside the program appears thrilled to potentially be giving up a home game to play overseas. The Wolverines are still slated to play seven games at the 107,601-seat Michigan Stadium in 2026, even if the game against the Broncos is moved to Germany. However, playing an in-state team over 4,000 miles away from Ann Arbor would limit opportunities for local fans to watch their team in person.<\/p>\n If Michigan-WMU is played in Frankfurt, the date will be moved to Aug. 29, 2026, which is Week 0. That would give the Wolverines an extra bye week before hosting Oklahoma on Sept. 12. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what I think about that,\u201d said Michigan 62-year-old defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, a veteran NFL coach before joining Sherrone Moore\u2019s staff ahead of the 2024 season. \u201cI used to back 20 years ago think that I\u2019d have the answer to that, but I\u2019m not in any of those meetings and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening, so it doesn\u2019t matter what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Other coaches were more diplomatic when asked about playing overseas. Michigan, coming off an 8-5 record last year, has less than three weeks until it opens the 2025 season against New Mexico. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been to Europe, never been to that part of the world,\u201d first-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of cool. It\u2019s a long ways away right now, but I did read that somewhere. For now, I\u2019m really focused on what we\u2019re doing each and every day, and just really blessed to be here and excited about what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019ll cross that bridge when we get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR \u2013 Michigan tight end Marlin Klein fell in love with football while growing up in Germany.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-337070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115012963280245574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}