National team, booze, jail: the tragic life of Erwin Kostedde

He was Germany’s first black international and a crazy guy with incredible stories. Today Erwin Kostedde celebrates his 75th birthday. Reason enough to look back on a moving life with many highlights and numerous blows to the neck.

“I don’t want to play football anymore. I would like to just stand at the bar and drink.”

It is this one sentence that stuck with Erwin Kostedde – far beyond his brilliant footballing deeds and headline-grabbing stories away from the green turf. And when you read the book by Alexander Heflik “Erwin Kostedde: Germany’s first black national player”, which was recently published by Die Werkstatt, you keep trying to get this saying by the then 21-year-old out of your head. But in view of the moving life story of Kostedde, it just doesn’t want to succeed. This sentence describes in a peculiar way the fragile nature of the former Bundesliga striker so precisely that hundreds of other words would not be able to.

In the book “55 Years of the Bundesliga – the Anniversary Album”, which was published in 2018, there is this one passage, this one fragment from the 1967/68 season, which many readers have always found so difficult to reconcile with the later successes of the man from Münster. At that time, MSV Duisburg sentenced its player Erwin Kostedde to a heavy fine and suspension. How did the professional react in this difficult situation? Defiant – in a strange, almost strange-looking way. At that time he said another memorable sentence: “I will be a beer tapper or a welder. Then at least I’ll be happy!”

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But what actually happened? After a number of disagreements and quarrels, Kostedde had given notice of his apartment on April 1, 1968 and sold the entire furniture, although it belonged to the MSV. The club and fans turned away from him. But not all of them. Dr. Büning, at that time the head doctor at the accident hospital in Duisburg, showed understanding for the young Kostedde despite the escapades: “Erwin is a difficult case. But coach Lorant and some other board members only saw the player Kostedde, not the person Kostedde. With Lorants Attitude, Kostedde is a professional, he has to know what he’s doing, you can’t treat a 21-year-old. That’s why Erwin kept fling because he doesn’t feel at home anywhere. ”

“What’s worse than racial slur?”

And in fact, the now 75-year-old Kostedde says in retrospect in Heflik’s book: “I always separated myself. Little things got me down.” With the time lag, the former national player realizes his mistakes: “I always wanted to be straight, that went on for a few days. The other thing was that I was always a weird guy. You just couldn’t rely on me.” But his footballing talent was just too great. Even if he often made mistakes, disappointed people and, above all, stood in his own way over and over again – Erwin Kostedde made it onto the big football stage. He scored so many goals that even the national team couldn’t avoid him. And that was something special in his case for another reason: Because Kostedde became the first black in the DFB jersey.

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But time and again life tore him off course. Kostedde couldn’t handle money, he drank far too much alcohol and made some fatal wrong decisions in the field of sport. Kostedde himself knows best that he missed almost all chances in his career – and yet had an amazing career because of his outstanding class. Had it not been for his inability to wisely invest the money he earned, he could have had a good life with his wife and child in his football retirement. But it turned out differently. Completely different. Dramatically different.

The money that had been earned was long gone in the summer of 1990. But what then fell on the Kostedde family on August 23, surpassed everything – and ended with Erwin with desperate attempts to take his own life. From one second to the next nothing was as it used to be. Erwin Kostedde knows that everything that happened after that “lags behind” him to this day: “All the money in this world cannot erase this nightmare. Do you know what is worse for me than a racist insult? If someone gave me ‘Knacki Kostedde’ The trial was my death sentence. “

“I’m do not feel well”

When the police stopped the family that August afternoon, Kostedde was joking. He asked the officers if he might have attacked a grandma. But he quickly lost his laughter. He was accused of raiding a “Spielothek” in Coesfeld. A kiosk owner was sure to have recognized Erwin Kostedde. But the former Bundesliga star just kept stammering: “It wasn’t me!” Later a court was supposed to confirm Kostedde’s innocence. But by then it was almost too late. The weeks and months in pre-trial detention had worn him down: “I just couldn’t do it anymore!” Kostedde tried to take his own life – and failed. Thank God.

Ben Redelings

Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and has his legendary treasure trove of anecdotes. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Tuesdays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.

As dramatic and gripping as the descriptions of Kostedde’s life in the book are, they stop suddenly. 26 years ago. “The year is 1995. This is where his football story ends, time stands still. In all areas.” But in truth, of course, Erwin Kostedde’s life went on. In 2016 the former national player asked the journalist and author Alexander Heflik after many discussions: “You have to write the book about me now.” It took another five years to complete. And every time they met, Kostedde answered the question how he was doing today with the same answer: “Bad. I’m bad!”

Today Kostedde celebrates his 75th birthday. One can only wish him on this day that life shows him once more that it is not so bad – as it was unfortunately far too often for him. All the best, Erwin Kostedde!

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