A football coach has been hospitalized in Germany after being attacked by an 18-year-old footballer he had kicked off the team and a gang of up to 40 other men rounded up by the teen.
The attack occurred on Sunday outside a café on Birkenstrasse, located in the inner city neighborhood of Moabit in Berlin.
The 43-year-old coach, originally from Armenia, had agreed to a meeting with the teenager after a dispute the week before had seen the player kicked off the local football team.
Upon arriving at the café with a companion, 35, the coach was confronted by the aggrieved player and an entourage of around 40 other men comprising relatives and acquaintances he had rounded up in a planned revenge attack on the coach.
The gang was armed with batons, baseball bats, stun guns, and knives, the German newspaper Bild reported on Monday.
“The two men were surrounded by the group and suddenly attacked with the objects they were carrying,” a police spokesman told the newspaper. They added that the gang primarily consisted of “Turkish and Romanian men” as well as “men from Armenia.”
A mass brawl commenced outside the café and resulted in the coach and his companion sustaining significant injuries requiring hospital treatment. Despite being outnumbered, the pair injured two attackers who were also hospitalized.
Eyewitnesses alerted the authorities to the violence, and Berlin police officers were dispatched to the scene. A number of baseball bats, stun guns, and a knife were confiscated, and a 28-year-old was arrested on suspicion of injuring two others with a knife.
“Many other people were injured. Most refused to seek medical treatment,” the police spokesman added.
