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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-02-09 06:56:26+00:00.
Last Friday, during a Bundesliga match between Cologne and Wolfsburg (1-0), German amateur referee Pascal Kaiser made headlines by proposing to his boyfriend, Moritz, in front of nearly 50,000 spectators at the RheinEnergieStadion. Highly active on social media in the fight against homophobia, the young man’s gesture caused a stir throughout Germany.
But on Saturday night, more than a week after this marriage proposal, Pascal Kaiser was physically assaulted at his home. The day before, he had received explicit threats mentioning his place of residence and had alerted the police, who assured him that there was no immediate danger.
Three men attacked him in his garden
Twenty minutes after this response, when he went out to smoke a cigarette in his garden, three men were waiting for him and violently attacked him, he says. The amateur referee now sees a direct link between this attack and his marriage proposal, believing that he was targeted because of this public act.