Ex-Löwe Seelmann remembers the 1972 Olympics: "Uli Hoeneß didn't play that well either"
Created: 2022-09-02 10:41 am
By: Claudius Mayer
Also played for 1860: Hans-Dieter Seelmann.
© Imago Images / Horstmüller
Hans-Dieter Seelmann was the only lion and Munich player who made it into the squad for the 1972 Olympic selection.
The 69-year-old remembers.
Munich – The memories of his "Olympia dahoam" are in an old shoe box in his apartment in Laim.
A few photos of the whole squad of the DFB team and a brochure with the portrait pictures of all the players.
"All signed, of course," says Hans-Dieter Seelmann, who at the time was the only native of Munich in the German squad for the 1972 Olympic soccer team.
And also as the only player of TSV 1860 Munich.
The "Datschi" - his nickname to this day - was 19 years old at the time and had just completed a season in the second-rate regional league.
"Of course, I was really happy about the call from coach Jupp Derwall," says Seelmann, "but that's about it.
I didn't play in any of our six games."
"Uli didn't play that well at the Olympics either."
Hans-Dieter Seelmann on Uli Hoeneß.
He accepted it without resentment.
"The other defenders were just more experienced and better," he admits.
But not good enough to earn a medal.
Seelmann: "We didn't expect much, but we were still very disappointed when we were eliminated in the second round after defeats against Hungary and East Germany." On the other hand, the teams from the Eastern bloc were considered "state amateurs". were allowed to compete with their senior national teams, i.e. in the best line-up.
The DFB invented the status of "Olympic amateurs" for selected talents who, however, did not yet have the level to be considered for Helmut Schön's elite team.
With one exception: Uli Hoeness.
A few months before the Olympic Games he had become European champion with the senior national team.
"But Uli didn't play that well at the Olympics either," says Seelmann, "like the whole team actually did.
Somehow we just failed.”
1972 Olympics: Hans-Dieter Seelmann goes to Munich with Ottmar Hitzfeld
Although the support has been tremendous.
Over 60,000 spectators were already in the Olympic Stadium for the preliminary round games against Malaysia and the USA.
But the German team didn't seem to take the tournament that seriously.
Two days before the decisive game against Hungary, Seelmann went on tour with Ottmar Hitzfeld (then goalscorer at FC Basel).
"I was supposed to show him Munich at night," he remembers, "and of course he came to the right place."
Then the big shock.
When the two escapees tried to sneak back into the Olympic Village in the early hours of the morning, they were initially not allowed in.
Seelmann: "Everything was cordoned off by the police.
At first we didn't even know what was going on.
It was only two hours later that we found out that the Israeli team had been assassinated.”
Despite honorary membership: The lions don't know Hans-Dieter Seelmann
A much more terrible news, of course, than the one that Seelmann had received a few days earlier.
But it also hurt him: TSV 1860 had fired coach Hans Tilkowski, who had scored in goal against England in Wembley six years earlier.
Seelmann: "I was very sorry, because Til was a coach who encouraged me a lot." Seelmann also failed to return to the Bundesliga in five attempts with TSV 1860.
In 1976 he moved to Wormatia Worms, and in this season of all things the lions managed to get promoted.
Seelmann: “I had tears in my eyes afterwards.
On the one hand because I was happy that Sixty finally got it, on the other hand because I was sad that I was no longer a player.
By the way: After the Olspiele were over in 1972, Seelmann received honorary membership for life from the Lion President at the time, Franz Sackmann.
However, when he asked the club a while ago if he could get a ticket for a home game, the answer was that they didn't know him.
A little tip for the club leaders: Seelmann celebrates his 70th birthday on September 18th.
The gift should be clear.
(CLAUDIUS MAYER)
