Uli and Jogi Hebel: Unusual rise to top commentators

Moving biography

Two brothers, two voices – and a sad secret

Uli and Jogi Hebel are among the best commentators in Germany. Her path there was anything but easy.

“On TV: Brothers make football history” – that was the headline on t-online in December 2021. Jogi and Uli Hebel were responsible for the premiere on German sports television at the time. Never before has a football game been commented on by two brothers. And that’s exactly what the two of them did in the Premier League duel between Everton FC and Arsenal FC for the first time for the pay channel Sky, for which they both still work today in addition to the streaming service DAZN.

The Hebel brothers had already made a name for themselves in the industry, but since then they have also become known to the general public. This has been even more true for Uli Hebel since he was allowed to comment on the Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan for DAZN in June 2023.

It is an accolade for him, with which he has finally arrived in the Olympus of the commentator elite. At the same time, it is an extremely important moment for him and his brother, especially on a personal and emotional level. The two now explain why this is so in a jointly published book.

In it, Jogi and Uli Hebel reveal a secret that they had sworn to keep to themselves.

It is an extremely sad thing that so far only their closest confidants and companions knew about: 37-year-old Uli Hebel and 39-year-old Jogi Hebel have been orphans since their early youth. They lost both parents within just two years. First her father Andreas, who was 62 years old, and then just 879 days later her mother Gotelind, who was only 49 years old. Both died of cancer. Uli and Jogi Hebel were only 13 and 15 years old at the time. And then grew up with their older sister Andrea in financially difficult circumstances in Burghausen, Bavaria – sometimes on the subsistence level.

It was only the sale of their parents’ house that made it possible for them to pursue their professional dreams. Specifically, that meant for her: studying sports journalism at the Macromedia University in Munich and being able to pay the expensive tuition fees.

“When both of them are once again really short of money and Uli notices in Munich that Jogi is even more behind on buying food than usual, he does something that he is still ashamed of to this day,” the book says in retrospect: “He sees an unguarded box in a van that delivers to a discount store, reaches into it, steals as much bread as he can carry and runs away with it towards his brother’s dormitory.” A few lines later he says: “Needing money but not having any was bad.”