Christoph Kramer names novel character after his wife – and she marries the protagonist

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Christoph Kramer names novel character after his wife – and she marries the protagonist.

When footballers write books, many people first think of autobiographies packed with training camps and trophy wins. Not so with Christoph Kramer (35): his first book is a novel – and tucked right inside is a love letter that goes straight to his wife.

We took a look at the debut novel and reveal the spot where Kramer put his Celina on paper – and why the story is more than a piece of fiction for him.

What is Christoph Kramer's debut novel about?

The book is titled Das Leben fing im Sommer an and, according to the publisher, was released in 2025. In it, Kramer tells a story that echoes his own youth: the protagonist grows up in Solingen, with the backdrop of the summer of the 2006 FIFA World Cup – the tournament that drew millions in Germany to their TV screens.

According to Promiflash, Kramer processes impressions from his time as a young football professional. From this mix of memoir and novel emerges a deeply personal book in which one character plays a key role.

Who is the Celina in the novel?

At the center is a young woman named Celina – spelled exactly like Kramer's real wife. In the plot, the protagonist doesn't just run into her in passing – he falls in love. Toward the end of the story, the acquaintance becomes something more: the novel-Celina, too, becomes the protagonist's wife.

That is hardly accidental, because in real life Celina Kramer is the author's partner. So the shared name is deliberately followed by the same plot arc as in reality – a homage, hidden between a World Cup summer and a first love.

How personal is the book really?

Kramer wraps the personal in a fictional narrative but sticks closely to the truth of his own life. A character who carries his wife's name and ends up getting married is the clearest signal of that. For fans of the former Germany international, the book is therefore also a look behind the scenes – not about tactics and training plans, but about the man behind them.

Anyone who wants to know how much football, how much Solingen, and how much Celina really ended up in the novel won't get around reading it. Kramer shows: sometimes you don't need a spot in the stadium to build yourself a monument – a novel character will do.