Uli Stein is a legend at Hamburger SV and Eintracht Frankfurt. The former national goalkeeper played 224 games in the Bundesliga for Eintracht, and the 67-year-old looked after 228 times in the top flight for the Hanseatic League. Stein also celebrated his greatest success with the Hamburger Sportverein when he won the European Cup of Champions in 1983.
“Whenever a winner pulls the pot up, I naturally think back to my greatest moment: our triumph with HSV in 1983. Back then, the European Cup was a real competition between the champions, the champions. That today it’s a final between the fourth from here and the third party from there, I never quite understood,” etched the HSV and Eintracht icon in his column for the specialist magazine “kicker”.
Uli Stein, who also won the German Championship and the DFB Cup twice, played eleven times in the European Cup and also played more than 40 times in other European club competitions.
Champions League: Uli Stein frustrated by mode
Today, the former national goalkeeper is more likely to be “frustrated with the Champions League”: “In contrast to the knockout process from the 1st round, it is now played in groups endlessly until the richest are among themselves again And they are – see PSG – still offended when they lose… I used to be rooting for European Cup evenings. Today I no longer plan my time according to the torn-down game plan of the so-called premier class. The enthusiasm for something special is simply gone. Pity.”
Stein’s criticism is not entirely unjustified, although the English champions were in the final of the premier class with Manchester City last year, but the Champions League winner was Chelsea with coach Thomas Tuchel. The Blues finished fourth in the Premier League in 2019/20 but went on to clinch the title.