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Kalou faces heavy fine for chipping at Berlin wall

FORMER Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou has fallen foul of Berliners after apparently defacing Die Mauer during a TV report.

In a film on national broadcaster RBB before his side Hertha Berlin’s Saturday clash with Schalke, the 29-year-old was apparently trying to convey the difficulty at chipping away at Die Knappen defence with a hammer and chisel.
 
Such vandalism of the wall that divided the capitalist west and the socialist east between 1961 and 1981 could result in a fine of up to €10,000 (£7,900).
 
Kani Alavi, chair of the East Side Gallery that claims to own the copyright to the graffiti on the purported monument to democracy — while Berlin borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg owns the wall itself, made the complaint to the police.
 
“When I saw the pictures I almost fell off the sofa,” Alavi told the Berliner Kurier.
 
“We have a well-paid celebrity increasing his market value at the expense of a monument. Without respect. And the public television mixes with it. I am deeply disappointed.
 
“Just because there are no security guards, that does not mean that you can do what you want there. If he had been doing that at the Brandenburg Gate, the player would have been arrested.”
 
Hertha Berlin and Schalke drew 2-2 on Saturday but Kalou failed to break through the defence.

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