Despite the constant hustle and bustle about his person, Seeler was approachable and without airs. “Not for that,” was one of his standard responses when someone thanked them for an autograph or a selfie. And that in his mid-80s. Among the stylish Instagram footballers of today, for whom self-portrayal on and off the pitch seems to be at least as important as the football game itself, Seeler would have been an exception. Down to earth, humble and not taking himself too seriously.
“If it didn’t exist, you would have to invent it”
And that is precisely what has made it so popular among different age groups. “The best thing in the world is to be normal. I’m perfectly normal and I like that,” the bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit once revealed. And that’s how he behaved. The “fat”, as he was affectionately called by many fans, did not push himself to the fore. But he didn’t hold back when he was asked about his opinion. Always straight and sometimes with the rogue in the neck. “Fantastic, this down-to-earthness and openness. If fat didn’t exist, one would have to invent it,” said Seeler’s friend Horst Hrubesch on his 85th birthday.
Making more of certain things than he felt they deserved was not in Seeler’s business. Instead of living in chic Blankenese, he lived in a little house in Norderstedt-Harksheide. He wasn’t interested in excessive frills. Not even on the soccer field: “I’ve scored a lot of beautiful and important goals in my career. There were overhead kicks, diving headers or back of the head goals. But I was always one who never died in beauty,” said Seeler in one FIFA interview. What was important was the essential, even if it didn’t look so filigree. “For me it was the best when the ball was just behind the line.”
Instinctive, with built-in goal guarantee
And the 1.68 meter tall Seeler often managed to do that. Very often. More than 1,000 goals are attributed to him in youth and senior teams – in the jersey of “his” HSV and the German national team. The most beautiful of these came in the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals against England. With the back of your head. Without even looking at the gate. Instinctively. No problem for someone like Seeler, someone with a built-in goal guarantee. His wife Ilka, with whom he went through thick and thin for over six decades, knew that: “He worked hard. It was clear to me that he did it,” she said in an NDR documentary.