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German football hero battles Nazi doppelgänger

Bastian Schweinsteiger none too happy with WWII lookalike figure

German football hero Bastian Schweinsteiger is none too happy with a Chinese-made Wehrmacht action figure which bears both his name and an uncanny resemblance to the Manchester United midfielder.

London's Evening Standard reports that Schweinsteiger has set a pack of attack lawyers on Hong Kong manufacturer DiD over the "Bastion" doppelgänger - a member of "a Wehrmacht supply unit" who sports the 1941 Russian winter offensive medal ribbon.

The Bastion figure as seen on the DiD website

DiD protested its innocence to outraged German tabloid Bild, with spokesman Patrick Chan defending: "We offer no figures based on football. The resemblance is purely coincidental.

"The figure is based on a typical German. We believe most Germans look like this. Bastian is a common name in Germany."

Lawyer Ulrich Amelung described the figure as "a clear violation" of Schweinsteiger's rights and a "clear case of defamation and insult".

Bastian was set to go on sale in Europe via a Dutch firm, but the legal assault looks set to sink that plan, according to Bild.

Disappointed punters might like to choose instead DiD's (website extremely wobbly) fetching Stalin collectible:

DiD's Stalin figure

Luckily for DiD, it chose not to depict a younger Stalin, and thereby avoided angry legal missives from a certain Real Madrid defender:

Sergio Ramos and a young Stalin

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