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He was one of the greatest in German football history.
Now he has died: Uwe Seeler, Hamburger SV club icon and honorary captain of the German national team, was 85 years old.
Photo:
imago
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Seeler was born on November 5, 1936 in Hamburg into a family of athletes: Father Erwin played for Hamburger SV, so Uwe and his older brother Dieter were also signed up for the »Rothosen«.
Between 1946 and 1953, Uwe Seeler played for the youth team at HSV, then made his debut for the first team – at the age of just 16.
Photo: imago sport photo service / imago/Horstmüller
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In the late 1950s and late 1960s, the Bundesliga did not yet exist.
Seeler played for Hamburger SV in the Oberliga Nord.
Nevertheless, he earned a nationwide reputation as one of the most accurate center forwards in the country: HSV won the championship in the North German regional association nine times in a row between 1955 and 1963, six times with Seeler as the top scorer.
In 1960, the big hit came: winning the German championship.
Seeler scored twice in the 3-2 final against 1. FC Köln.
Photo: Lothar Heidtmann / picture alliance / dpa
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At this point at the latest, Seeler became a HSV club icon.
But his status quickly grew beyond that of local hero: in 1961 he turned down an offer to move to Milan.
FC Internazionale offered a lot of money, but Seeler also declined because of his ties to his home country.
That was well received - just like his sporting achievements: after a European Cup catch-up race against FC Burnley, »Us Uwe« was born, and in 1963 he decided the cup final against Borussia Dortmund with a hat-trick.
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At just under 1.70 meters, Seeler was not an imposing figure.
Nevertheless, the center forward's headers were notorious: in his first game as captain of the German national team in 1961, Seeler scored three goals with his head against Denmark, his hit in the back of the head at the 1970 World Cup went down in German sports history.
Even the newly created, single-track Bundesliga did not pose a challenge for Seeler: in the 1963/1964 season he was the top scorer in the history of the league with 30 goals, and he was to score a total of 137 Bundesliga goals.
Photo:
dpa
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A torn Achilles tendon is still a serious injury from which not every soccer player comes back without a loss of performance.
Seeler suffered such a setback in 1965 - just one year later he captained the German national team at the World Cup in England and became vice world champion.
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In 1968, Seeler wanted to retire from the national team, but Helmut Schön persuaded him to do so.
In 1970, Seeler then delivered another outstanding tournament, now 33 years old as the hanging leader behind Gerd Müller.
It was only in the semi-final against Italy, which became known as the “game of the century”, which they lost 4-3 after extra time, that it was over for the DFB team.
Seeler's career in the national team also came to an end a little later, he scored 43 goals in 72 appearances.
Photo: SVEN SIMON / imago images/Sven Simon
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After his active career, the private man Seeler remained loyal to the Hanseatic city.
Apropos: Seeler's tendency to be particularly faithful was also reflected in his marriage.
In 1959, Seeler married his wife Ilka (here in 1983 in the shared apartment in Norderstedt), she stayed by his side until the end.
Photo: Georg Spring / picture alliance
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But Seeler also remained connected to football.
Between 1995 and 1998, Seeler was president of his HSV, and his autobiography, published in 2003, was entitled »Thank you, football!«.
In 2018 he was inducted into the first eleven of the German Football Museum’s »Hall of Fame of German Football«.
Photo: Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
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The pride remains: Uwe Seeler with a framed photo of the championship team from 1960. A good ten years ago, Seeler could at least be happy about a European Cup semi-final for his heart club, in the past few seasons, Seeler suffered with HSV - first in the relegation battle, then in the fight for promotion back to the Bundesliga.
Photo: Maurizio Gambarini/ dpa
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The final years of Seeler's life were complicated by multiple fall injuries.
In 2020, the then 83-year-old broke his hip.
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
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However, the qualities that his fans valued him for – his modesty, his love of football and Hamburg – were retained by »Uns Uwe« to the end.
The news of his death caused a storm of insults on social media.
Photo:
Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
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Since 2005, there has been a larger-than-life bronze replica of Seeler's right foot in front of the Volksparkstadion, HSV's home ground.
After the news of Seeler's death, fans of the club legend made a pilgrimage to the statue to lay flowers.
Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
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