Ten people were shot dead and several others critically injured in attacks on shisha bars in the German town of Hanau, east of Frankfurt, on Wednesday, 19 February, with federal prosecutors treating the mass shooting, one of the deadliest in Germany in years, as an act of terrorism.
Tobais Rathjen, the right-wing terrorist who killed ten people and injured six during a shooting rampage in Hanau on 19 February, once played football for a youth team coached by Jurgen Klopp, reports the Daily Mail.
Rathjen is believed to have played in the youth section of Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt sometime in the 1980s.
The gunman had posted a series of videos and an online manifesto on his website ahead of the shootings, where he referred to his time with the youth team, saying he had played between the ages of 10 and 15.
Rathjen boasted online of showing good footwork skills and professed impressive knowledge of the game, claiming that as of 2001 he had devised a strategy for the German national team to secure a World Cup victory.
The shooter wrote that his strategy revolved around making Jürgen Klinsmann manager, before replacing him with Klopp after he had built up his experience. Adding that he had known Jurgen Klopp during his time as a youth player at Eintracht Frankfurt, Rathjen went on to claim his plan was stolen from his brain by a secret service surveillance programme that was run by either the German or…
