Hermann “Tiger” Gerland has become one of the most popular people in football Germany in recent years. In his new book, the man from Bochum-Weitmar talks about his endless love for football – and about a day that he still finds “incomprehensible” today!
“I always say: ‘My wife became a grandmother and I became German champion'” Hermann Gerland will never forget the first days of May 2010: “On May 8th we got the championship trophy. On May 15th Paul was born, ours first grandchild. For me, this German championship is the best of all the successes I’ve been involved in at FC Bayern since then.” When Hermann Gerland, the boy from Bochum-Weitmar, left the record champion eleven years later, he had won a total of 25 titles. But there is one thing he will never forget. The morning after the first championship, when Gerland woke up and everything was still “incomprehensible”: “I hit my head and said: ‘Is that true?'”
Hermann Gerland, who now works for the DFB, has put up with many hardships in his career. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why he was later able to convey the difficult path to the top so credibly to many promising talents like Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger or Didi Hamann: “Many people talk about the dreams they want to realize. I don’t. I never dreamed of being a pro. I’m not a dreamer, I’m a worker. I’ve worked. I’ve hoped. But I’ve never dreamed.”
“My life for football”
Reiner Calmund once described himself as “crazy about football” because he couldn’t find a better word to describe his passion for football. The subtitle of Hermann Gerland’s extremely readable book “Immer auf’m Platz” is: “My life for football”. And how serious the 68-year-old means with this sentence is described better than the short story in his book when little Hermann missed a longer report in the “Sportschau” about the great Pelé in May 1963. That day he was halfway through a piece of apple pie with cream when his father told him it was for his sister.
As a punishment, Gerland was not allowed to see Pelé in the evening. A year later, his father died far too early, but Hermann Gerland still thinks of that day: “If I were to meet my father today, I would say: Dad, what you did was shit. If you punished me, because I messed up, no problem. But back then, with the cake thing, it wasn’t my fault.”
It is this undisguised love of football and probably also his origins that have made Hermann Gerland one of the most popular football figures in Germany over the past fifteen years: “I’m from Bochum. That’s my city and I want to go back there – at the latest at my funeral. I was born there and I want to be buried there.” Hermann Gerland shaped his homeland: “Bochum-Weitmar in the late fifties and sixties, that’s where my life with football began. It took me from the dusty backyard where we kicked the ball onto the carpet pole to the most famous stadiums in the world It never left me, the love of football. Maybe that’s in the pot in the cradle. At least that’s how it was for me.”
“He messed things up at some point…”
After his career as a player, Hermann Gerland switched to the coaching bench at the age of just 30. And he soon got a taste of the Bundesliga again at “his club”, VfL Bochum. But as an assistant coach to the pros, he also oversaw the training of the club’s second B youth – always on the lookout for new talent, since VfL then, as now, had less money than the clubs around it. One day a player’s father told him about an outstanding talent from Bochum-Werne who would play in the Westphalia team: Thorsten Legat was the boy’s name. But Gerland just shook his head. There would be no legate there, he knew that. But the father replied: “Yes, he messed up at some point and was then sorted out.”
Gerland was happy when he suddenly heard that Thorsten Legat was about to move to DSC Wanne-Eickel. But just in time, before representatives of the club from the neighboring town showed up in Bochum-Werne, he was able to convince his mother and son that VfL was the right club for the young talent. But the gentlemen of the DSC did not give up – and when Gerland called the Legats the next morning, nobody answered the phone. And now a crazy search began, because nobody at school knew where Thorsten was.
“I don’t want to say that everything was better in the past”
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 maintains his legendary anecdote treasure chest. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his current book (“60 Years Bundesliga. The Anniversary Album”) is available on his website www.scudetto.de.
When Gerland finally asked about the legatee in the schoolyard, a “little one” answered: “Maybe it’s in the allotment garden.” They also searched there together – but no trace of Thorsten. The mystery was only solved in the afternoon: Legat had been to the dentist in the morning. Without hesitation, Gerland got into the car and picked up Thorsten Legat at home in Bochum-Werne. Years later, the still young talent left VfL for a transfer fee of millions and thus helped his club out of the worst financial jam for a few moments.
Gerland’s endless passion for football is clear on each of the 284 pages of his book – and there is always a bit of melancholy in his stories: “I don’t want to say that everything was right in the past and everything is wrong today. But not the other way around either. You have to keep the good of the past and add the good of today.” In these difficult times of upheaval in German football, Hermann Gerland’s voice should be heard. He’s already in the right place, alongside Hansi Flick at the DFB. That gives hope. Good luck, Hermann Gerland, and greetings from Bochum – “our” city!