Mourning for "Us Uwe": DFB honorary captain Seeler died

Created: 2022-07-21Updated: 2022-07-21 18:04

HSV legend Uwe Seeler has died at the age of 85.

© Christian Charisius/dpa

Whoever says HSV also means Uwe Seeler.

The former goalscorer was an idol and Hamburg trademark.

The Hamburg honorary citizen has now died at the age of 85.

Hamburg - In Hamburg there is the Elbphilharmonie, the Michel, the Köhlbrand Bridge - and there was Uwe Seeler.

The former football idol was something of a landmark of the Hanseatic city during his lifetime.

Even those who never saw him play know his name and rave: "He was a great one!" The name Seeler has become synonymous with loyalty, modesty and down-to-earthness.

The former striker with a goal guarantee never left his Hamburger SV, not even for a multiple of the money he was offered.

For "Us Uwe", as he was called all over the country, the motto was: once a hamburger, always a hamburger!

Now the former international has died at the age of 85.

Humour, down-to-earthness, kindness and modesty are the qualities that characterized Seeler.

Everywhere in the world where the German football idol of the 1960s traveled privately or as the honorary captain of the national team, people spoke to him.

And he always took his time.

He listened, rarely turning down a request for a personal word or autograph.

That was also the case before his 85th birthday in November 2021.

Although his health was not that good, Seeler tried to comply with almost all requests from the media and representatives of the Hanseatic city.

"You want to make people happy, but sometimes you can't.

That's hard to tell other people," he said with a sigh.

As far as his health allowed, Seeler attended the home games of his HSV.

But that became increasingly rare.

"I'm very sad," Seeler commented on the Bundesliga relegation in May 2018 and thus the blackest day in the history of the traditional club.

"But tears don't help." One of his wishes: "I hope that I will experience the rise again." Unfortunately, he was not granted that.

More than 400 competitive goals for HSV

Seeler was a legend as a center forward.

The goalscorer from Hamburg-Eppendorf scored 404 goals in 476 competitive games for HSV, making him one of the best footballers of his time.

He has 137 goals and 36 assists in the Bundesliga.

The never-ending attacker's headers will be remembered, especially the back of the head goal in 1970 in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico that made Germany 2-2 against England.

He gained his international popularity in the German national team.

In 72 international matches, he scored 43 times.

Seeler was third at the 1970 World Championships and vice world champion in 1966, but never world champion.

The photo of him trotting off the field with his head and shoulders hanging after the 4-2 defeat in the 1966 World Cup final against England, accompanied by a uniformed security guard, is world-famous.

Later it was called: the photo of the century.

In 1972, the HSV idol was named honorary captain of the German Football Association.

"Us Uwe" was a football icon of incredible charisma.

This went far beyond national borders.

In 1961, Inter Milan made an offer worth millions.

He turned it down and stayed in Hamburg.

His credo: "You can only eat one steak a day."

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"I'm perfectly normal and I like that"

Coach Helenio Herrera, who negotiated with Seeler for three days and added more and more salary, was shocked in the end.

He confessed that he had never seen anyone give up so much money.

So Seeler continued to play for the Hanseatic League, worked as a representative for Adidas and drove around 70,000 kilometers a year by car.

"The best thing in the world is to be normal," said the bearer of the Great Federal Cross of Merit later.

"I'm perfectly normal and I like that."

HSV was a matter of the heart for Seeler until his death.

He even interrupted his vacations at his North Sea home in St. Peter-Ording to watch the team's home games.

So he spoiled many a weekend in the lean Bundesliga years - and that of his wife Ilka at the same time.

The family was always the focus for the "fat" or "little mouse", as his Ilka affectionately called him.

At a young age, the former HSV handball player and her three daughters showed a lot of consideration for the successful national striker.

Before league games he was so nervous that the children had to sneak around the house in stockings.

Later they not only organized his calendar and managed the many appointments - they were also his support.

Ilka called her husband the calmer, more balanced part in the marriage.

They were married for 63 years.

Health problems since car accident in 2010

From an early age, Seeler had painful experiences with death.

Father Erwin, a barge driver from Hamburg, and brother Dieter died young.

As he grew older, the increasing number of funerals in his circle of friends made him more and more thoughtful.

In the summer of 2010, he was injured so badly in a car accident in front of the Elbe tunnel that he was not at fault that he had to have several operations on his back in the past few years.

He couldn't hear anything in his right ear.

He later got a pacemaker.

He had to give up his favorite sport of golf and cycling, but he still took walks with the dog.

"Us Uwe" Seeler scored more than 400 competitive goals for HSV.

© dpa

Germany's first footballer of the year had fallen several times in his home in Norderstedt in recent years.

He once fractured his right hip and three ribs.

He was then fitted with an artificial hip joint.

After that he had to use a walking stick.

In a fall earlier that year, he broke a finger and tore his right shin.

But he never wanted to complain.

"It could be better.

But I'm satisfied," he always answered worried questions.

He often chatted with his friend, the former Bremen midfielder Max Lorenz.

That wasn't a problem over the phone.

The two of them also exchanged views on increasing ailments and how best to deal with them.

“Uns Uwe” has almost no regrets in his life.

"I think I've done everything right so far.

I'm happy and so is my family," he summed up when he was 85. He only described two things as wrong decisions: on the one hand, the unfortunate presidency at HSV from 1995 to 1998, when he failed due to finances and wrong friends, on the other hand Building a swimming pool in your own backyard.

Both times, Seeler had not listened to his Ilka's advice.

dpa