Uwe Seeler is HSV. Nobody stands for the diamond like him. Now the former goalscorer of the national team is turning 85. However, he has a lot to complain about with modern football.
Uwe Seeler actually wants to go home now. The day with the many appointments before his milestone birthday pretty exhausted the famous hamburger. “Maybe I’ll take an afternoon nap,” said the football icon, smiling mischievously to a dpa reporter. He has almost reached the exit door of the “Tunici” restaurant in Norderstedt when someone exclaims: “Uwe? You are Uwe Seeler, aren’t you?” Seeler turns and nods, almost embarrassed. “That’s what I’ve always wanted: to meet you once. May I take a picture?” Asks the visibly enthusiastic guest and has already pulled out the cell phone. Seeler agrees. Ilka, Seeler’s wife, waits patiently at the door. Both of them know it. For decades.
Uwe Seeler will be 85 years old this Friday. The people who once saw him as a thoroughbred striker usually have gray temples themselves. Others, who are significantly younger, have heard stories about him, read about him in the newspaper or seen snippets of black and white video on YouTube. “Uns Uwe” is known to almost everyone, across generations. “Uwe Seeler is an honorary citizen of our city and a Hamburg legend. With his sporting success, he made football history,” says Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher.
Looking back happily on his life: Uwe Seeler at the end of October during an interview in Norderstedt near Hamburg
© Christian Charisius / DPA
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also raves, he thinks of Seeler. “My best wishes go to a legendary sportsman and a unique personality in German football,” wrote the Federal President. Steinmeier calls the goal behind the head at the 1970 World Cup against defending champion England “probably the most famous goal” in Seeler’s career.
Uwe Seeler has remained down to earth – the Hamburgers like that
Germany’s first “Footballer of the Year” is currently recovering from a fall in his home. “It could be better. But I’m satisfied,” he says when asked about his condition. A year and a half ago, after another fall, he was given an artificial hip joint. “At the moment I’m still a little weak on my feet. I don’t even know that about myself,” he reports. His walking stick is therefore always within reach. Seeler needs stamina for the many appointments and requests made by the media before his special day. But it is not always enough. “I don’t want to disappoint anyone,” he says. “You want to make people happy, but sometimes you can’t. It’s hard to sell to others.”
The popularity of the former HSV goalscorer par excellence is based not only on his sporting fame with back-of-the-head goals and falling back, four World Cup participations and Germany’s second place at the 1966 World Cup, but also on his human qualities: down-to-earth, humble, honest. “The best thing in the world is to be normal,” reveals the winner of the Great Federal Cross of Merit. “I’m totally normal and I like that.”
Uwe Seeler was born in 1936 and also experienced bitter poverty
He doesn’t know anything else from his parents’ house. “Vaddern has already made sure that I stay normal. I can’t go crazy,” he assures, and adds: “It wasn’t the time for it either.” Born before the start of the war, endured fear and privation as a daily companion, then experienced barren times – street football with painstakingly mended balls was a distraction that became an addiction. Seeler was grounded then and still is today. “He’s one of us,” say the fans. “He’s a friend and a great guy,” says former goalscorer Horst Hrubesch. “This down-to-earth attitude and openness is fantastic. If ‘the fat one’ didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.”
Seeler looks at his life with gratitude. “I think I’ve done everything right so far. I’m happy and so is my family.” He would do everything the same way if he had the chance. “Now we want to see the next few years,” he says and gives his Ilka a squeeze. His greatest wish besides health: that his HSV, which he has never left – not even for a million dollar offer from Inter Milan – is first class again. “It would be nice if they came back to the top division,” he sighs. However, this can take time.
Former HSV star sees imbalances in modern football
With today’s professional football he is alien. “They all earn more money, but I don’t even know whether these days are really better,” said the 72-time international. The price-performance ratio has to be right, he warns and sees an imbalance there. Exploding transfer fees and salaries frighten him: “That’s why I’m afraid it can’t go well for long.”
A thorn in his side are kick-off times for commercial reasons at an advanced hour. “It doesn’t work at all,” he growls. When HSV won the cup in Nuremberg with the penalty shoot-out half an hour before midnight, he only stayed on the television screen until 1: 1. His wife later revealed the result to him. “They are crazy what they do to us,” complains Ilka Seeler about TV broadcasts at bedtime.
The confession of national player Joshua Kimmich not to be vaccinated at the moment horrifies Seeler. “I find his attitude towards vaccination very strange. He also has to think about the others he can infect.” The corona restrictions have also affected the Seeler family, who have three daughters and seven grandchildren. “We lived completely abstinent, had hardly any visitors. The time was already very long, in which we practically lived in house prison. Now we’re going to eat with friends again.”
Seeler has been married to his wife Ilka for 62 years. “Little mouse,” she says to him affectionately to this day. “We didn’t do that much wrong,” he says. But there was not only sunshine. “There was a real crash once in a while,” says Ilka and admits that she even wanted to run away at the time. “Don’t you remember the fight?” She asks her husband. Uwe Seeler looks hard. Then he says with a grin: “It was your fault, wasn’t it?”
See in the video: Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb is a police officer and football referee. She has already whistled games in the World Cup and the Olympics. In the VOX voice format, it demands more respect in our society.