He was the first handball player to become world champion as a player and coach: Heiner Brand. Even today, the native of Gummersbach goes to VfL games as a fan, where he got into handball at the age of seven. Heiner Brand celebrates his 70th birthday on Tuesday.
His trademark is easy to recognize: “Of course the mustache,” said Heiner Brand with a laugh. However, he loses his laughter when someone calls his mustache a walrus beard. “I don’t think it’s that great. I’ve heard the term a few times and have to be able to live with it,” Brand told WDR.
But Heiner Brand doesn’t get too excited anymore either. The celebration of his 70th birthday is not too big either. Brand is traveling with his wife, children and grandchildren. “I once considered a bigger celebration, but I gave up on that. Maybe I’ll catch up on a few things,” Brand told SID.
Bart had to believe it after the European title
Brand had enough reason to celebrate in his long career. In 2004, for example, when he was a coach with the German handballnational team became European champions. At that time, the mustache also had to believe it. “I promised the players that they could shave their mustaches if we won the title. Then we won the title and the players had fun,” said Brand.
After winning the European Championship in 2004, Heiner Brand kept a promise and shaved his beard.
In 2007 it was the other way around when the German team became world champions in their own country. Brand’s greatest sporting success as a coach. The beard stayed on, instead the players glued bushy mustaches to their faces. This success is “always present”, says Brand. “The excitement it triggered was unique.”
First world champion as coach and player
At that time, the native of Gummersbach became the first handball player who managed to become world champion as a coach and player. Brand did that as a player in 1978. “In retrospect, the victory was very high, because we as amateurs won against the full professionals of the Eastern Bloc at the time, that was an extraordinary achievement at the time,” Brand said in retrospect.
And only two months ago there was reason to celebrate again in the Brand house when his heart club, VfL Gummersbach, made promotion to the Bundesliga perfect. Three years ago, the German record champions were relegated for the first time in the club’s history. Now the return was successful. For Brand it was like an early birthday present. “So it fits quite well this year. But I also hope that you can establish yourself in the Bundesliga again, but I also see good prospects there.”
Brand is still a VfL fan today
Brand still goes to VfL games as a fan today, where he started playing handball when he was seven. He also still lives in his parents’ house, just a few hundred meters from the Gummersbacher Halle. Brand was a German champion as a player with VfL six times and won the DHB Cup four times. He was twice the European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Cup Winner of the National Champions. Between 1987 and 1991 and 1994 to 1996 Brand was also a coach at VfL on the sidelines and won the German championship twice.
Brand was also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for winning the 2007 World Cup. Congratulations came from political Berlin on his 70th birthday: “Few people have shaped German handball as much as you have. As a player and coach, you have written handball history,” wrote Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Brand, who ” with all fame and with all popularity “always remained true”. “You never forgot that you only get to the top if you don’t go it alone,” said Steinmeier.
Don’t be afraid of old age
DHB President Andreas Michelmann praised Brand as “one of the greatest personalities we’ve ever had – not just in handball, but in all of German sport”.
For Brand itself, health is now the top priority. You have to “be more careful and live more consciously,” he says, “but I’m not afraid of old age.”
