The “round as a ball” Brazilian thrilled the fans with his crazy goals and crazy actions. Werder Bremen shot Ailton to the Bundesliga championship. After that, the Brazilian enjoyed himself. Today the man who once offended the whole of Gelsenkirchen is celebrating his 50th birthday.
Aílton Gonçalves da Silva, Ailton for short, is known as “Kugelblitz”, although he himself never had a problem with his weight: “I don’t have a gram too much. It’s because of my physique that I look so plump.” Incidentally, Paul Breitner never found the funny Brazilian so special: “People like Ailton, you can catch them in a pack on the Copacabana with a lasso.” Funny, because Ailton is actually a fine guy or as he himself says: “Ailton is goals, Ailton is fun.”
When he came to Bremen in 1998, one thing immediately struck him: “Maybe the Germans behaved badly towards God. That’s why he punished them with the cold.” The fact that he didn’t get really warm at first may also have been due to his unbalanced diet. For the first three weeks in Bremen, Ailton only ate spaghetti bolognese. “German is difficult, I only knew these two words,” he later said with a broad grin on his face.
But back then, despite a coach named Felix Magath, he didn’t lose hope: “I’ve been through all that in Brazil when I was with Guarani. I only had to touch the ball and the whistles and insults started. Because I was supposedly the highest paid player and didn’t do enough for the team. And when I come back today, people ask: Ailton, when are you coming back? I hope it’s the same in Bremen.”
“Now Ailton meets the Teuro”
In the beginning there was only mockery at first. “Ailton always runs forward and straight ahead. When the technically experienced Brazilians practiced combining, he must have missed it,” said his team-mate Andreas Herzog. And Frank Baumann drew a comparison with the Hertha BSC mascot: “He’s almost as fat as our Brazilian.” TV commentator Werner Hansch wasn’t really nice to him these days either: “Ailton, so far he’s played like a bunch of self-pitying Quark.” And some nameless television man used the winter for more ridicule: “Ailton is the only Bundesliga player with a figure like a snowman.”
But then, at some point, it suddenly happened. And the Brazilian was enthusiastic about himself: “I make my eyes wide open, the Stuttgart defense doesn’t stand a chance, neither does the goalkeeper. 1-0, that’s Ailton.” Really excited: “Ailton is like medicine for the sick.” And suddenly the Brazilian loved the cold new country so much that he wanted to play for Germany. Because they needed him badly, as he himself recognized: “When you see the Germans playing, you don’t think that they are the Germans you feared before.” But national coach Rudi Völler dismissed it casually: “You have to have a bit of German.”
That hurt the soul of the sensitive Brazilian and with a mischievous grin he slandered the strange country that he actually has taken so much to his heart: “Carnival in Germany is different than I know it. Everyone dresses funny here – in Brazil, everyone always undresses.” And because it’s so beautiful in his homeland, Ailton always extended his stays a little longer after the summer break. Coach Thomas Schaaf was quite relaxed when the Brazilian missed the start of training without an excuse: “What Toni does could be described as paid vacation. He takes vacation and pays for it.”
In Bremen they waited and waited and talked. Manager Klaus Allofs: “Now Ailton gets to know the Teuro.” Then you waited again and then talked. Thomas Schaaf: “When you see the publicity he achieves with it, it would be almost negligent on his part to be punctual.” But then there was suddenly hope, as media director Tino Polster announced from the training camp on Norderney: “You’ve already seen Ailton in Bremen, but apparently he hasn’t found a way to cross the sea yet.” Finally he came by taxi. According to legend, he still hasn’t paid the bill.
Then Ailton had to go to Gelsenkirchen
In the end, however, everything ran smoothly again at SV Werder. Bremen secured the 2003/2004 championship on matchday 32 with a comfortable 3-1 win over their direct competitor and pursuer Bayern Munich. In the relaxation pool, Ailton stripped in front of the cameras and presented himself to the television nation in his full glory. Outside on the tartan track of the Olympic Stadium, he had previously talked effusively about his plans for the rest of the day: “Champagne, water, Brazilian beer. I have to do everything today. Everyone.”
Exhilarated, he also said the wonderful sentence: “It’s easier to score goals than to get a German driver’s license.” Of course, he will not have said it exactly like that, because as journalist Christoph Biermann once said: “Ailton is not much more familiar with the German language than the penguin is with flying.”
And then it was time to say goodbye to beloved Bremen and Ailton said a momentous sentence: “I have to go to Gelsenkirchen now!” Understandably, he wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms by the Royal Blue supporters there. Already in the spring he had said about his new hometown: “Everything I’ve heard about Gelsenkirchen so far is a disaster.” When he drove up in a rental car with a Dortmund number plate, he quickly had to promise to buy a car with a Gelsenkirchen number.
In this context, he also assured the fans that he also wanted to adapt the green area in front of his house to his new employer: “I’m still dyeing the lawn in my garden blue. Green is the Werder color, but now I’m a real Schalke player. ” The Schalke Fan-Initiative eV wrote him an open letter: “Dear Mr. Goncalves da Silva. We didn’t choose Gelsenkirchen and neither did Schalke. It’s us! Come visit us – and after the first championship celebration with us you won’t even know where Bremen is the next morning.”
“Toni, Toni double pack”
When the Gelsenkirchen adventure came to an end, it went across Europe until Ailton came back to Germany. The Bundesliga had had to do without him for almost a year, and now he wanted to do it again in the MSV Duisburg zebra jersey. And as always, Ailton was in excellent spirits – even if, for all to see, he was a few pounds overweight. Regardless, Ailton Goncalves da Silva believed in himself and gave it his all: “Total focus on football. No sex, no boom. I only have an orgasm when I score a goal. Goal. Boom. Ailton is back.”
And his old maxim still applied: “If I were a coach and had an Ailton, he would always play 90 minutes.” But this station was – like so many others afterwards – not crowned with success. From now on, as he once said frankly, he landed a direct hit only in bed: “I’m just saying: Toni, Toni double pack. My wife is having twins!”
They used to “throw one or the other party” in Bremen from the Brazilian’s fines (Thomas Schaaf). Today the “Kugelblitz” celebrates its 50th birthday. Thank you so much dear Ailton for all the wonderful goals and entertainment and Happy Birthday!