This Friday, one of Germany’s best footballers is celebrating his 80th birthday. Wolfgang Overath’s rivalry with another great, Günter Netzer, is still legendary. Overath was on the pitch at the 1974 World Cup final – even though he wasn’t supposed to be there because of his wife.
“We shared the room at two World Cups. We shared the bed together longer than we did with our wives – but nothing happened.” In all likelihood, this saying from Franz Beckenbauer was not to blame for Wolfgang Overath almost missing the 1974 World Cup in his own country. It was Ms. Overath who intervened at the time. But more on that later.
For all late-born people who never saw the incredible footballer Wolfgang Overath play live in the stadium, three quotes should be put right at the beginning. Buffy Ettmayer, the exceptional Austrian artist from VfB Stuttgart and Hamburger SV, once said looking back: “Today they would have to hit Overath in the brain with banknotes until he was unconscious. That’s how much money he should have earned back then.” The legendary “El Flaco”, the world champion coach of the Argentine national team in 1978, Cesar Luis Menotti accompanied his hymn of praise for the world champion player in 1974 with other famous names: “The real talent sensitizes me. Overath, Cruyff, Maradona – it gives me goosebumps. ” And world star Pelé said about Overath in 1970 on the occasion of the publication of the book “Yes, my temperament”: “I have often been asked to put together my dream team. I don’t want to do that because I know a lot of good players in the world. But two German players I would put them in my dream team without hesitation: Overath and Beckenbauer. It must be a pleasure to play in a team with these two.”
Incidentally, the book was not published under good conditions at the time, as the editor Karlheinz Mrazek explained in the foreword: “Thieves had stolen the tapes with the recordings of the Overath book. Our promise to leave them unmolested if they return or hand in the material anonymously, remained without an echo. So we were forced to repeat the whole thing.” Good this way. Because otherwise this wonderful passage, which must also be viewed as a piece of contemporary history, would never have appeared: “Wolfgang Overath doesn’t think much of female football fans. Wives with a strong football mind and passionate football interests are not to the player’s taste: ‘I can’t do anything Imagining worse than football chicks screaming in the stands. Thank goodness my wife is the exact opposite. She really doesn’t know anything about football.'”
Overath went to the World Cup despite skepticism
Around 50 years later, Wolfgang Overath confirms this in his newly published Interview book “You can’t win alone”, which was created together with WDR presenter Sven Pistorthe sentences from back then: “I’ll say that Karin has never seen a game in full length. When she was in the stadium, she tended to talk to other women. And when a game is on TV and I say: ‘ “I’m going to watch it now,” then she’ll watch something else on TV downstairs. She’s not interested in watching football with me in front of the box.”
And yet back then, before the 1974 World Cup in her own country, she almost ensured that her doubting and desperate husband Wolfgang almost canceled participation in the World Cup, as Overath reveals in his new book: “She had noticed how unsafe I was and that I was playing badly at the time. And when I told the national coach that I wasn’t sure yet whether I would come, she said: ‘Stay here! You came second and third!’ – She always preferred it when I was home, always!”
But Overath drove. Naturally. Despite his doubts and sporting problems. Because rejection was never actually an option for him. He was far too much of a footballer with heart and soul for that. Someone who always wanted to play – especially at a World Cup. When Mehmet Scholl canceled the trip to Japan and South Korea in 2002, Overath said in complete consternation: “To forego a World Cup, I would have to have broken both legs.”
Legendary rivalry with Netzer
- Ben Redelings is a best-selling author and comedian from the Ruhr area.
His current book “60 Years of the Bundesliga. The Anniversary Album” is a modern classic from the publisher “The workshop”
He travels all over Germany with his football programs. Information & dates www.scudetto.de.
By the way: There is another strange story from that 1974 World Cup, which Overath left as the proud world champion. After the final in Munich, he is said to have collected all of the German team’s jerseys and put them in a bag – because the jerseys were supposed to be a very special gift for a youth team from Siegburg. But on the way to the team hotel – “a bit dazed” – he lost the valuable cargo and is said to be very sad about it to this day. Understandable.
The great rivalry that Overath shared with Günter Netzer on the pitch in the 1970s is still legendary today. Back then, the winner was usually the Cologne team. Overath was also on the pitch in the 1974 World Cup final. Netzer only had the better end on his side in the legendary 1973 cup final. After Gladbach’s goal, former Cologne player Franz Wichelhaus said: “You see, that’s the difference: Overath would have stroked the ball again, Netzer hit it in!”
The goal was a great satisfaction for Netzer, as was the fact that Overath once got to one of his cars via a detour. When Netzer drove the Jaguar (convertible, six cylinders, 269 hp, 4.2 liter displacement, 240 km/h), it was anthracite gray. But then suddenly it jerked and rain came through the roof. Netzer decided to sell the noble piece. The buyer was none other than Franz Beckenbauer. But he soon lost interest in the unreliable car and passed the car on – to Wolfgang Overath. And the very first thing he did was have the Jaguar repainted – “in a terrible purple,” as Netzer noted. But Overath didn’t have much luck with the Jaguar. It continued to only start very temporarily.
Dirty weekends thanks to 1. FC Köln
Wolfgang Overath was and is always there for his 1. FC Köln. From 2004 to 2011 he also served as president of the club. He justified his resignation with the honest words: “We don’t want to be annoyed by match reports anymore, we don’t want to ruin the weekends anymore!”
When Wolfgang Overath ended his playing career after the 1976/77 season, the last man from the first hour left 1. FC Köln. Back then, on August 24, 1963, the young Cologne player scored the first goal for his FC in the Bundesliga. What very few people know: If Overath hadn’t scored for Cologne in the dramatic relegation thriller in 1969 and saved the club – he would have gone to Bayern. Everything had already been discussed in detail. Almost 14 years after his Bundesliga debut, Overath left the big stage. And he did it (just) in time. Because his wish when saying goodbye was always: “I don’t want to be booed at!” He did that – with flying colors!
Two years earlier, Wolfgang Overath had already reached his peak as a footballer by winning the 1974 World Cup. He ended his career as a national player with the triumph in Munich over the Netherlands, as he says in his new, extremely readable book with the beautiful title “You Can’t Win Alone”: “I would have played for the sake of playing, even if I I should have brought money. But for me there was only one goal: I’m a footballer and I know that the greatest thing I can ever achieve is a World Cup – taking part in it and possibly winning the World Cup. I always gave everything for it. I knew that basically everything had been achieved now, that’s all you needed in your life as a footballer.”
Today the man who once said the wonderful sentence – “I would play even if I didn’t get any money for it. But since there is money, it’s even better” – and still stands on the football pitch every week, is celebrating his 80th birthday. Birthday. Warmest congratulations, all the best and good luck, dear Wolfgang Overath!