In Bremen, the former national goalkeeper Tim Wiese caused a stir at the weekend when he was expelled from the VIP premises at the derby between Werder and Hamburger SV. It is by far not the first time that Wiese has hit the headlines because of his very special behavior.
The “white Brazilian” Ansgar Brinkmann – also not a child of sadness – celebrated a few years ago when it became known that the former Bundesliga keeper Tim Wiese would from now on switch to wrestling under his battle name “The Machine”: “Tim Wiese is booming in Germany. The reason is not wrestling, the reason is that everyone wants to hit Tim Wiese in the mouth. ”
The former Werder goalkeeper has to trigger some special attraction in quite a few people who obviously don’t like him that much. The “Frankfurter Rundschau” also printed lines a few years ago that left no doubt as to how the journalist felt about Tim Wiese at the time: “A proletarian, grotesquely inflated and burned on the solarium in fitness studios, which now and then holds up well and otherwise concentrates on polishing the bones of his opponents. “
At the weekend, this scandal professional Tim Wiese made the headlines again – and afterwards, as usual, announced that he really wasn’t to blame for it. But his expulsion from the VIP area of SV Werder Bremen during the game against Hamburger SV could have been more noiseless and thus less headline-grabbing if all parties had contributed to the de-escalation. But de-escalation doesn’t seem to be one of Tim Wiese’s particular strengths.
The famous scene with Olic
Twelve years ago, after a derby against Hamburger SV, Wiese was the focus of interest. After Werder’s 2-0 win against Hamburg, the then Bremen goalkeeper climbed onto the fence with a megaphone and fervently said: “Scheiß HSV!” screamed. After the heated game and Wiese’s history in Hamburg, that was understandably not particularly well received by either the players or the opposing fans.
Because just a year earlier Tim Wiese had just jumped past the face of HSV professional Ivica Olic with a kung-fu kick at the derby in Hamburg. The crazy scene of a madman! In fact, against Wiese was then to be investigated for “attempted manslaughter” – but the Werder keeper was only surprised: “The person who reported me demanded that I should get the fair punishment. He probably meant prison.” His statement immediately after the game, however, made it look deeper than the extroverted keeper himself suspected: “I didn’t want to hurt him. But it was clear to me as soon as I ran out: I will either hit the ball or I will be thrown off the pitch.”
As Lotto King Karl once said so aptly: “There are those professionals who only play well as assholes.” And Tim Wiese cultivated this image vigorously throughout his career. An image that was also based on the fact that the muscular goalkeeper always saw himself as an outsider and underlined this with pithy slogans: “I hand in a business card every week, but I have no lobby in this country. Nevertheless, I will continue to fight until myself the blood is dripping from the ears. “
The man they called “mirror”
But in the Bundesliga this fight was over after his move to TSG Hoffenheim for the 2012/13 season. At the low point of his career, his own supporters mocked the then freshly suspended keeper with a banner. In the fan curve of TSG Hoffenheim they held up two banners during the away game in Fürth. One of them read: “Hey Tim, go outside!” And on the other: “We pay the alcohol.” The contentious goalkeeper would not have remained himself if he hadn’t looked for a few new victims – in this case it was the Hoffenheim journalists who he addressed head-on with a pointed remark: “I have a nice life – in the Opposed to you. ”
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 treasure trove of anecdotes. 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 book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.
In the last few years it has become more and more quiet around Tim Wiese. After his short wrestling adventure as “The Machine” (“I have only one goal: The destruction of my opponents”) and a mini comeback at SSV Dillingen, he made an appearance on the “worst football show of all time” in “Beckmanns Sportschule” made headlines during Euro 2016. There he obviously played himself to a large extent: “The former goalkeeper and future wrestler Wiese drives up as a bouncer with his monster Lamborghini, lifts dumbbells on his single bed or sits in the sauna in a bathrobe.”
In team circles, Tim Wiese is said to have been nicknamed “Spiegel” in the past because he obviously couldn’t get past any reflective surface without checking the position of his hair. That fits the image of the spoiled Bundesliga professional who likes to hide the realities of everyday life for himself, as his girlfriend and later wife Grit said years ago: “When we wanted to fly to Domrep in winter, I had to get to the airport pretty much smile at Tim! He thought, everything will go by itself. Someone will pick up the suitcase, you can pass the security check … Just follow the guy with the flag … “
When Tim Wiese finally switched to wrestling, Ansgar Brinkmann said a nice sentence that could literally stand for so many episodes and scandals in Tim Wiese’s life: “This is what happens when your toys are stolen from you as a child. Only then come you on such ideas. ” It will be interesting to see what “ideas” the former national goalkeeper will have in the future. Because there is one thing that Tim Wiese can truly credit himself with: at least it never gets boring with him.