Uwe Seeler was a man whose physiognomy was always recognizable: the clever, mischievous face of the boy was still reflected in the face of the old man, who walked through his Hamburg with the cane, where even the little ones knew him, although it had been 50 years since his last game .
Seeler never won the World Cup, but he took part in two games that are part of the legends’ hoard: the final against England at Wembley in 1966 and the quarter-finals of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, again against England.
The fact that the German team did not win both tournaments is the tragedy and grandeur of Uwe Seeler. After the wrong goal and the defeat at Wembley, he shook hands with the Swiss referee and the Russian linesman and went before the British Queen as captain of the team. In Mexico he scored with the back of his head like you’ve never seen before. It was his last of 43 goals for the national team.
By then, Uwe Seeler had long been the most famous and popular soccer player in the country. He came from a working class household in Hamburg-Eppendorf and spent the night in the cramped apartment in his parents’ bedroom. He played soccer on the street and joined Hamburger SV in 1946; already as a 17-year-old he played in the first team. The little man was an agile digger, became a center forward and was called up by Sepp Herberger before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. The clever “boss”, world champion coach from 1954, used substitute player Seeler against Argentina: “Do as I said.” Uwe Seeler scored a goal.
Uwe Seeler: HSV mascot
With HSV he became German champion in 1960 and thus the city hero and mascot of the club – all the more so when he turned down the offer from Inter Milan in 1961 to go to Italy for a suitcase full of money (allegedly more than one million marks). “Uwe stays!” was on the front page of the daily newspaper. His resolute wife Ilka later said: “The Italians made a mistake: they didn’t talk to his wife and didn’t look at how we actually live.”
Namely on the outskirts of Hamburg, near the Volksparkstadion, which is where Seeler worked. He drove through Germany in a spacious Mercedes as a traveling salesman for “a large sports shoe factory” (Adidas) – table tennis accessories, jerseys and sleeping bags were also on offer. In 1965, Seeler’s Achilles tendon tore during a game; the “Tagesschau” came to the sickbed. Seeler fought back and took the national team to England for the World Cup and the final. “There is no better way to represent a country. Uwe led the way,” said Franz Beckenbauer, who took part in the tournament as a 20-year-old.
Uwe Seeler ran and drooled constantly
By the time of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Günter Netzer and Wolfgang Overath had joined – and Bayern Munich centre-forward Gerd Müller, another genius of the penalty area. Us Uwe was now the old man. National coach Helmut Schön ordered the 33-year-old into attacking midfield. “I knew about the mountain air,” said Seeler. “But they didn’t say anything about the heat.” Beckenbauer describes Seeler as a funny choleric who “90 minutes not only ran, but talked, who scolded the referee and this and that teammate – his mouth never stood still. He ran around the square, red-faced, like a fire alarm.”
That sounds even cuter in Bavarian. Even in the back position, Seeler still scored goals. And then he made the back of the head gate and went down in myth. Every person who has ever been interested in football knows this goal.
In 1972, Seeler made his last of 640 games for HSV. Udo Jürgens sang goodbye at the Hotel Atlantic. As crisis president of the club – Franz Beckenbauer, now a football oracle, and the club members pushed him – he was unlucky in the 90s: A monument cannot lead a club. Today, Seeler’s foot stands as a massive sculpture in front of the Volksparkstadion – a laconic Hamburg form of honor. Uwe didn’t even know what modesty meant: “It’s the best thing in the world to be normal.” And the best thing is that Uwe Seeler wasn’t normal at all.
The most legendary of the legendary football artists died yesterday in Hamburg at the age of 85. He would have loved to see the game of the German women’s soccer team.
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