ZQuite often Uwe Seeler has been asked what mistakes he has made in his long life. Whether there is one big faux pas that he would like to undo. Seeler didn’t have to think long because he had heard this question many times before. And so he replied: “Well, the swimming pool in our house in Norderstedt – that shouldn’t have been!”
On the one hand, that was disarmingly honest and says a lot about Uwe Seeler as a person. Also about the husband, by the way, because his wife Ilka had persuaded him to build the pool. On the other hand, someone can’t have been wrong all that often in their life balance if a little too much luxury is all that bothers them.
One had to imagine this Uwe Seeler as a satisfied person. Sure, what happened to him in terms of accidents and injuries to his aging body since 2010 was at least as unpleasant as visits to the Volksparkstadion. Seeler has said his fingers are already flattened more than once when it came to the next football game for his Hamburger SV.
As the greatest player in the club’s history, as president, as an honorary citizen of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and simply as a person everyone liked, “Us Uwe” was repeatedly asked about HSV. He had become milder, more merciful over the years. He also enjoyed a win in the second division against Sandhausen. If he succeeded. Nobody could think of a better ambassador. The word idol was not stretched too far.
Aged 85
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Soccer legend Uwe Seeler is dead
He hadn’t interfered in club politics for a long time. It was a largely silent resignation that the return to old glory did not materialize. Seeler’s well-intentioned advice that football is still a running game and that there’s no harm in rolling up your sleeves went unheeded.
Of course, Seeler thought about what had once made him strong. Never give up. Lead with effort. Trust the friends in the team. Be a role model in victory and defeat. The “fat man” didn’t like defeats at all – worse was at most when teammates didn’t make an effort, passes didn’t arrive.
“What could Uwe complain about,” said “Charly” Dörfel, who fed centre-forward Seeler with crosses, “he could scold like a reed sparrow and his head turned bright red”. Seeler remembered it like this: “I ran to the back and snapped at her. Then they said: Go forward and score goals instead!” Sentences from the days when football was still black and white.
“Football is a running sport”
When the balls were made of leather, the jerseys were made of cotton and the pitches were arable, Uwe Seeler experienced his early heyday. He had learned how to throw himself into it on slag and asphalt in Eppendorf – when it was still a rather mangy neighborhood. His “Vadder”, called “Old Erwin”, came from Hamburg-Rothenburgsort and was a player himself when he wasn’t toiling in the port.
Seeler often said that the sons Uwe and Dieter inherited a resolute robustness from their father. Soccer on the street, together with his best friend (who died early) Klaus Stürmer, until the lights went out (or they were shot up): that was enough to be happy in the devastated city of Hamburg after the Second World War. “Overhead kick, side kick, slide tackle – we practiced everything on the street,” said Seeler.