Savas Kepic: The George Best from Erding

"Football is freedom," is supposed to have said Bob Marley.

This sentence also sums up Kepic's career quite well.

Erding

- 1987. Savas Kepic, 24 years old and soccer player for the then fourth division TSV Eching, packs his bag: a few clothes, swimming trunks, toothbrush, soccer shoes and $ 3,000.

The upcoming trip with the fully packed bag should not take him to a training camp or to a possibly higher-class club, but to Jamaica.

“It has always been my dream to travel there,” recalls Kepic, looking back.

If you don't reduce football to successes, trophies or money, there aren't many names left in the district who embody the beautiful game as much as he does.

Kepic, also known as "Wasche", is something like Erdings Bob Marley or George Best - for him it was never about becoming the best, but about having fun, with football and with life itself. "Football is freedom", should Bob Marley once said.

This sentence also sums up Kepic's career quite well.

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At the age of four, Kepic, who was born in Istanbul in 1963, came to live with his parents in Erding.

You had already arrived two years earlier as a guest worker.

Childhood is shaped by playing football, just like that of reggae legend Bob Marley.

On the streets of Erding, he runs after the ball for days and sometimes even nights.

“When I was nine years old, I came to TSV Erding” - his third family, as he says.

The first family is his own.

He found the second on the day he started school at Lodererplatz School: “I was a little late, and there was only one free place in the class.

So I sat next to Anton Widmann, and he immediately invited me home for lunch. ”This leads to a lifelong friendship.

Kepic still visits the family in their shop on the Lange line every time he is in Erding.

“Back then I was with them almost every day.

I owe everything I have achieved in life to the Widmann family. ”Without this help, he would never have made it this far, both professionally and at school, the 57-year-old is convinced:“ I was the first Turk in the district to do the Passed the entrance examination at the grammar school.

That was 1974. “But he doesn't want to describe his life as a successful integration story.

“I was not interested in whether I am Turkish, or will or have to be German.

I wanted to be Savas Kepic and I managed to do that, ”he says.

"I've always had fun in football and in life."

With 17 years already in the men's area

At TSV Erding, Kepic's footballing development takes off at a rapid pace: At the age of 17, the “Wasche” is on the pitch for the first time with a special permit.

He scored 23 goals in 26 games in his debut season in the A-class (today's Kreisliga, editor's note).

In the same year he received an invitation from TSV 1860 Munich to do a trial training session over six weeks.

The problem: He has just started an apprenticeship at Sport Gerlspeck in Erding.

“I asked if I could go early if I didn't take a lunch break.

Hans Gerlspeck, a wonderful person, said I should take my lunch break and leave two hours earlier, ”Kepic remembers.

His boss at the time was a great sponsor and very proud of him: “He always cut out the newspaper reports about my games and especially showed them to the young customers.

I was 17, so I was totally ashamed. "

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Even at 57, still in the body of a footballer: Erdinger spends most of his time in Cesme, Turkey.

Archive image.

© Konrad Kressierer

A season later, he increased his quota at TSV to 1.0 goals per game.

At the age of 20, he received an offer from the Turkish first division club Rizespor.

“3000 marks a month,” Kepic remembers.

“But then I looked at the map - Rize is very far in the east of Turkey, almost close to Russia.

I didn't want to go there. ”Instead, he goes to SV Türkgücü Munich in the fifth-class district league, scores 14 goals in 28 games, gets unbeaten in the state league and scores a little less often.

"The higher the class, the fewer goals I scored," admits Kepic with a laugh.

"This also shows that I wasn't that good a footballer."

After a few years with TG Munich, he returned to TSV Erding for one season and then moved to TSV Eching in the fourth-class regional league.

But he doesn't have the ambition to become a professional footballer: “I wanted to see the world.” So at the top footballer's age, he interrupted his career at the age of 24 and fled to Jamaica.

A six-week vacation is planned.

“But after two weeks I met a girl, Michelle.

The six weeks turned into three and a half months, ”he says with a laugh.

Football is only sporadically on the beach, just like Bob Marley does.

C-Class: three months become four years

Kepic travels to Jamaica four times and spends a total of three years there.

In 1990 he lived in Latin America for six months: “I was in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba and Belize.

I lived there in hammocks and ... "The 57-year-old hesitates, thinks for a moment and only says with a wink:" I'd rather keep the rest to myself. "

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When he returned to Erding in 1991, he went to FC Moosinning, was involved in the preparation for the season, but was injured in the first test match and was out for months.

During the winter break, the doorbell rings.

Adnan Özalan stands there, chairman of Türkgücü Erding.

A funny situation that the legendary striker and womanizer George Best could have experienced, who is said to have once said: “I spent a lot of my money on alcohol, women and fast cars.

I just wasted the rest. ”In any case, Özalan is standing in front of the door and wants to get in,“ but I had a girl in the apartment. ”So the womanizer Kepic first has to hide his appointment in the living room and then invite the TG boss into the kitchen.

Talking point: “He wanted me to be a player-coach.” Kepic himself doesn't want that.

After all, Türkgücü plays in the lowest league.

“I don't play in the C-Class,” he says.

After two hours he somehow lets himself be persuaded to help out until the end of the season - three months at most.

Then he played in the C-class for four years.

“I had prejudices at the beginning, especially because of the league.

But then it was a very nice time, I was top scorer twice and always scored between 28 and 34 goals.

And I was able to get to know the Turkish culture.

Otherwise I had almost nothing to do with the Erdinger Turks. "

At the age of 33, “Wasche” ended the Türkgücü Erding chapter and finally gave up his football boots.

“The mind was fit, but the body wasn't anymore,” he says.

Football is now finally over.

A few years later he married "the best woman in the world", his then partner Birgit.

She gives him “the two most beautiful children in the world, Dennis and Sophie”, now 21 and 18 years old.

Immortalized in the Erdinger Stadium

In 2000 the former goalscorer founded his company "Kepic Hygiene".

But in 2007 he has to sell it.

For health reasons he cannot work for a long time.

After a brief comeback in professional life, he has to retire early, at the age of 50.

The question arises: “Where am I going now?

Costa Rica or again Jamaica or Brazil? "

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Even at 57, still in the body of a footballer: Erdinger spends most of his time in Cesme, Turkey.

© Private

After all, the now divorced man goes to Turkey.

“I wanted to visit my mother,” he says.

After two and a half months of stay, he decides to stay and buys a holiday home in the resort of Cesme.

"I am now here ten to eleven months a year and the rest of the time in Erding."

But he has not completely disappeared from Erding.

It often happens that nostalgic people tell stories about him at games from FC, TSV Erding or FC Türkgücü.

"I was a child back then, but to this day I haven't seen a better footballer here," says Selcuk Gürel, TGE youth director.

But even if no “washing” anecdote is told at a home game, an advertising banner in the Erdinger stadium still says: “Kepic Hygiene - wholesale of hygiene equipment and paper sales for industry, hotels and restaurants.”

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