This has to be a wind up…
More used to pulling the strings in midfield than having the string pulled on him, it would be weird enough that footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger is suing a toymaker for misusing his image on a doll if not for the fact it’s a Nazi doll.
Instructing his legal team to bring proceedings against Hong Kong-based Dragon in Dream for its 30cm evil army figure which is due to retail for around £78, the German international and Manchester United star is aggrieved that the plastic soldier bears a striking resemblance to him.
In response to the legal action, Patrick Chan of DiD - which also sells figures of first world war soldiers, Stalin and James Bond (naturally) - told German newspaper Bild that the likeness was a fluke: “The figure is based on a typical German. We believe that all Germans look like that.”
Slightly racist perhaps, but given the Premier League man’s chiselled Germanic features you may think he has a point. Until, that is, you realise they named it Bastian. Oops.
Which of course Chan claimed was because “many people in Germany are called Bastian” and not that football stars are global icons and it wouldn’t hurt sales to base it on a strapping blond German who millions of people know.
Equipped with white winter jacket and gloves, and accessories such as two loaves of bread and a set of mess tins, we’re surprised they didn’t add some boots and a training kit.
[Via: Guardian]
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