“Uns Uwe”: Only a world champion of hearts

There are only a few football players you immediately recognise by their nickname. The real surname of “The Fritz” is Walter and stems from the “Miracle of Berne”.

“Uns Uwe” (our Uwe) is the affectionate name for Seeler, who shone during the 1960s and 1970s of the 20th century in German football. “Franz” is the “Kaiser” and his civil name is Beckenbauer. His time were the “golden 1970s” and “80s”. “Loddar” is Matthaeus, whose first name is Lothar. He is linked to the last two decades of the past century. These four all have something else in common: they all are honorary captains of the German national team. Only one has a “black mark” against his name: “Uns Uwe” never won the World Cup title.

“Uns Uwe”, the man after Fritz and before Franz and Lothar, is a synonym for example and consistency, the will to perform and honesty -- a man with the common touch and popularity. For the German people “Uns Uwe” has always been very close to their hearts. That’s possibly the reason for the addition “Uns” (our) before his first name. This Uwe belonged to all, everybody could identify with him. As a footballer, he was a star performer. Former centre forward Uwe Seeler stands for German football, Hamburger SV, club loyalty, continuity.

Seeler once disclosed much of what marked him, and what is on his mind, in an article for the Bundesliga Magazine of the German Football League, DFL: “I was, am and remain a security fanatic. Be it sports, profession or family – I have always chosen the honest, the safe road. It was and still is a life dedicated to my family, to football, to Hamburger SV and life in the city of Hamburg. I was born in Hamburg in 1936, my parents Anni and Erwin have always lived here. My wife Ilka grew up in Hamburg, our three daughters and the grandchildren are Hamburgers. Our family stands for Hamburg. I started with HSV at the age of nine. By the age of 16 I was in the first team in 1954, and I retired in the HSV shirt in 1972.

I never once thought to leave Hamburg and the Alster river. That was known in Germany. No other club has ever tried to contract me. They knew they could well save their money rather than make an approach. I played for a long time during the era of amateur football in Germany. Much needed to be approved by the DFB – such as bonuses and special payments. Then there was not very much to be earned in sports. I had a job as a haulage company manager, but also held the sole agency for Hamburg and Lower Saxony with adidas from 1961. This was security. Only once, and that’s well known, was I undecided. It was 1961. That was when Helenio Herrera really wanted me at Inter Milan. I sent the president home on the third day of negotiations – despite a million offer which I could probably have pushed even higher. But money is not everything”

Once HSV, always HSV!

As a 16-year-old, Uwe Seeler attracted attention at the 1953 UEFA Youth Tournament in Brussels. That same year he played in the HSV league team for the first time in a friendly against Goettingen 05. Seeler’s international career started in Hanover on October 16, 1954. The 17-year-old was then the third-youngest debutant in the DFB’s international history. He earned altogether 72 caps and scored 43 goals. Seeler was elected German Footballer of the Year three times (1960, 1964, 1970) and was nominated for the World and the European honour also three times respectively. He was the first football player to be awarded the Great Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (equivalent of an OBE). He scored a total of 267 goals in 237 first division matches, and 137 goals in 239 Bundesliga matches. He finally said good bye to active football in a match between a World selection and Hamburger SV in front of 70,000 spectators on May 1, 1972. At his first World Cup in 1958 Uwe Seeler and Germany finished fourth, he played four years later in Chile, helped the DFB team to qualify for England in 1965 where they eventually finished runners-up, and made his 21st and last World Cup match in Mexico 1970, winning the bronze medal.

But one tournament and one match in particular will always be remembered by Seeler. It is the World Cup in England, the mother country of football. It is the 1966 final in the football Mecca called Wembley. These World Cup finals began with a 5-0 victory over Switzerland for the German team, coached for the first time at a World Cup by Helmut Schoen. They then drew 0-0 with Argentina and defeated Spain 2-1. Seeler’s team dismantled the brutal “Urus” (Uruguay) 4-0 in the quarter-finals, and the USSR 2-1 in the semis. Germany had made the final for the second time in World Cup history – to meet the hosts, England.

Geoffrey Hurst, a man, a goal, the Wembley Goal…

Emotions and scorers alternated for 90 minutes. Haller (12th), Hurst (17th), Peters (78th), Weber (90th) scored in a changing pattern. The match went into extra time. Thirty minutes of new hope for Germany and Seeler. After 100 minutes, an Englishman became the central figure in the final -- Geoffrey Hurst. He later described the 101st minute as follows: “Alan Ball passed the ball to me on the right side, the goal was behind my left shoulder. I pushed the ball to the right and hammered a turning shot towards the goal. I only saw the ball again when it bounced back into the pitch. I am absolutely certain, due to Roger Hunt’s reaction, that the ball was over the line to give us a 3-2 lead, and thus was a proper goal. It would have been absolutely simple for Roger to push the ball over the line if he hadn’t been sure – he was completely alone”.

Seeler is certain: “The ball was not in!”

What Hurst didn’t see: the ball crashed against the lower side of the bar and bounced back on to the grass. On, out or behind the line? Nobody really knows one hundred percent, and will be no wiser in a hundred years. Does this scenario not show that the ball clearly bounced back from the bar into the field of play? While scorer Hurst’s arms shot up rejoicing, Wolfgang Weber rushed in and headed the ball out of play. Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst and his assistant Tofik Bakhramov, from Baku in the Soviet Union, were certain, only after a discussion on the sideline, that it was a goal.

On this day, July 30, 1966, at about 17:00 hrs, Dienst made a decision based on facts which led to a 3-2 lead for England against Germany, and was the crucial point in the extra time of the final which ultimately ended 4-2. The headline of the German tabloid “Bild” read the following day: “We lost 2-2”, and entire generations still have heated discussions about this scene, which is linked to the expression “Wembley Goal”. Uwe Seeler did the only right thing. He kept his team back from violent protests. Germany had played a great tournament and lost with decency. But even 42 years later, in April 2008, Seeler said at a panel discussion in Freiburg: “It was not a goal. I’m absolutely certain. The ball was not behind the line. But that doesn’t matter anymore”. That’s “Uns Uwe”. A fair sportsman. Not a World Cup champion as a footballer, but a world champion of hearts.