“I find the best thing in life to be normal. That’s how I am and that’s how I want to stay.” That’s what someone said about himself whose enormous popularity was based on exactly this attitude: to be normal. Uwe Seeler (1936-2022), who captained the German national soccer team to the legendary World Cup final on the pitch at Wembley in 1966, has now died at the age of 85, as Hamburger SV has confirmed after initial media reports. He is the “greatest HSVer of all time”.
“Uns Uwe” was born on November 5, 1936, and his father must have inherited his footballing talent: Erwin Seeler (1910-1997) was also a striker and one of the most popular footballers in Hamburg until the 1940s – the however, there were no major successes. But he and mother Anny (1913-1994) must have burst with pride by 1954 at the latest. The 17-year-old Uwe had been playing in the youth team of the Hamburger Sport-Verein for eight years before his sponsor Günter Mahlmann (1908-1975) sent him to HSV head coach Martin Wilke (95).
Seeler took his chance immediately: In his first Oberliga game, the Bundesliga didn’t exist yet, he scored the 3-0 win over VfB Oldenburg and made it 2-0. Three weeks earlier he had already scored four goals in the 8-2 cup derby win against Holstein Kiel. This trend should continue: In the following years in the Oberliga, Seeler did not stop scoring, between 1954 and 1962 he scored 267 goals in 237 appearances.
One of the people who recognized this potential early on was national coach icon Sepp Herberger (1897-1977). Immediately after the World Cup triumph in Bern in 1954, Herberger nominated the 17-year-old for the senior national team. On his debut in October 1954, however, he remained goalless in a 3-1 draw against France. The young striker made his breakthrough during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden: Together with the DFB legends Helmut Rahn (1929-2003) and Hans Schäfer (1927-2017), Seeler formed the attack. He scored a goal in each of the group games against Argentina and Northern Ireland, but was injured in the semi-final defeat by hosts Sweden and was unable to take part in the third-place play-off against France.
But Uwe Seeler, who had always distinguished himself with his fighting spirit on and off the field, soon recovered and again scored as he wanted. National coach Herberger continued to rely on the young attacker, about whom he once said: “There are undoubtedly far better players in terms of play. But nobody has the talent like Uwe Seeler to achieve so much effect in the smallest of spaces against the strongest guard.” The experts in Italy didn’t miss it either, at that time Serie A was the premier league that attracted international stars with a lot of money. The fact that Seeler rejected Inter Milan’s 1.2 million Deutschmark offer in 1961 and opted for “our little house, our families and our secure future” finally made him a folk hero. So it was only logical that in 1961 Seeler became the captain of the German national team for the first time. In his first game with the bandage on his arm, Seeler scored three goals in the 5-1 win against Denmark – the 1.68 meter tall striker scored all three goals with his head.
For the 1962 World Cup in Chile, however, regular captain Hans Schäfer returned to the team. Only after the World Cup, where Seeler scored two more goals in the group stage but was unable to prevent the 1-0 draw against Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals, did Seeler finally become captain of the national team. And as such, he led the German team in one of the most legendary games in German football history: the final of the 1966 World Cup in England is still unforgettable today, and the outcome is well known. Thanks to the Wembley goal, with which Geoff Hurst (80) made himself immortal in Great Britain, Uwe Seeler was denied the world title.
At the same time, Seeler was as accurate as ever in everyday league play. In the Bundesliga, which was newly founded in 1963, he did not get beyond disappointing places in midfield with his HSV, but with 30 goals he secured the first top scorer in the newly founded league. In 1966, Seeler wanted to resign from the national team for the first time, but at the urging of national coach Helmut Schön (1915-1996) he stuck with it for a few more years. On September 9, 1970, he became a record German national team player with his last international match – it was his 72nd appearance for the DFB. Franz Beckenbauer (76) overtook him three years later, and Lothar Matthäus (61) holds the current record with 150 games in DFB dress. In May 1972, Seeler said goodbye to club football with a game against a world selection. With shouts of “Uwe! Uwe! Uwe!” he was carried out of the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg. His record for Hamburger SV: 404 goals in 476 games.
Uwe Seeler then retired from football and founded the company Seeler-Moden, where he sold sporting goods. A good 20 years after the end of his career, he allowed himself to be persuaded to come back to HSV and became president of his heart club. He held the office between 1995 and 1998, one of the few decisions that he looks back on with little happiness: “I have no regrets in life, but I should have listened to my wife once or twice: We really didn’t have a swimming pool in our house had to build a house; and at the time, Ilka advised me not to accept the office of President.”
Uwe Seeler was able to look back on a life that had made him an idol nationally and internationally. It was not just because of his goals that “Uns Uwe” became the second honorary captain of the DFB in 1972 and an honorary citizen of Hamburg in 2003, but also because of his down-to-earth nature and his attitude. “Uwe Seeler stands for everything that characterizes a good person: down-to-earth, loyalty, joie de vivre, and he was always approachable. He is the epitome of HSV,” explains board member Jonas Boldt (40) in a statement. In addition, the club lost “the greatest athlete in its history,” according to a statement from HSV.
Seeler’s health had been a problem for several years. So he had to cancel all appointments in his birthday week, as his wife Ilka, with whom he had been married since 1959, informed the sports information service. At the time, the doctor “strongly advised him to take it easy”.
On the occasion of his day of honor, Erste and NDR Fernsehen presented the documentary “Uwe Seeler – One of us: The football legend turns 85”. In it, Seeler was finally grateful and satisfied with his life: “I think we should be calm and relaxed and enjoy what we have. And for how long, that’s in the stars. Nobody knows.”
