Today, ZDF reporter Béla Réthy is not only celebrating his 66th birthday, but is also retiring with the World Cup semi-final between Morocco and France. Some criticize his “breediness”, others appreciate his dry humor – but no matter how: For Leon Goretzka, a childhood memory is leaving today!
“Don’t worry, my dear Jörg. We went through the best of times.” It is these nostalgic memories of the past that sports reporter Béla Réthy wrote in an article for his friend and former colleague Jörg Dahlmann’s book “Immerstraightout” a few months ago. If you read these lines, you can be sure that the moment for Béla Réthy, on his 66th birthday today, to end his career at the microphone with the World Cup semi-final match between Morocco and France, will not come a moment too late: “How quickly These decades have passed! When the Bundesliga was not yet a signature product and we reporters could present all emotions up close. Without prior registration at the press offices, directly on the sidelines, sometimes with quotes from the coaches during the game.”
They are memories from another time. Perhaps a time when Béla Réthy felt even more comfortable with his relaxed, informal manner. When there wasn’t the to-the-second tribunal on social media that sometimes judges so feebly that it needs no further mention. It must have been a bit like before for Réthy when national player Leon Goretzka surprisingly interrupted an interview in the mixed zone three years ago when Réthy asked a question from the off. Goretzka smiled at the crowd of reporters and said: “Sorry, again please. To be honest, I’m a bit distracted by your voice because I always know it from international matches as a little boy.”
Réthy, who was born in Vienna and grew up in Brazil, revealed that he was already covering his tenth World Cup as a reporter on the day of the opening game of this year’s World Cup in Qatar, when the spectators left the stadium long before the end of the match. For him a situation that he had never experienced before. And Béla Réthy was able to accompany many a highlight live in his career as a ZDF sports journalist, such as the 1996 European Championship final, when Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in the final with the first golden goal in football history.
Another curious highlight of his varied career happened at the EM 2008 in the semifinals of the German team against Turkey. The viewers could not follow the live broadcast on ZDF the entire time. Because precisely in the decisive phase, the transmission from Vienna was interrupted. Groaning at the public viewing and confusion at the broadcaster. But the commentator of the memorable evening, Réthy, knew immediately what the hour had struck: “It’s always these crazy moments that make you famous overnight.”
At this point, Réthy was of course already on everyone’s lips – and that had a lot to do with his very special way on the microphone. Sometimes he seemed a little jittery and lost in thought, at other times quick-witted and quick-witted. His “oneliner” punchlines were popular and distinctive. “Platini sits in the stands and sees really good football – since the French left,” was one of them. Or: “There’s the ball on the roof of the BayArena. But the DFB, as I know it, certainly has a second one with it.”
Often with a fine point, as in this case when Germany went down 5-1 in Romania: “The heaviest defeat in 50 years – and you can say you were there.” Or this one, about Israel’s striker Revivo from Fenerbahce Istanbul: “For him, too, the seriousness of life has returned – Werner Lorant has been his coach for a few weeks!”
But sometimes Réthy seemed to be trying very hard to speak: “Of course the attacks by the Spaniards aren’t as fluid – the loss of fluids is too high.” Or with this one: “The substitute player Folha is called Blatt in German, which now has to be turned over.” And so there were quite a few viewers who didn’t like Béla Réthy’s way of commenting and who took every opportunity to openly criticize when he – which unfortunately also happened quite often – was wrong with names, dates or facts. A few years ago, the “Hamburger Abendblatt” wrote unflatteringly after a CL final: “What Réthy babbled on about the lively final between the alert FC Barcelona and the senior squad from Juventus Turin was shameful for the guild. The whole tediousness of a established micro-personality meandered from his voice into the living room.”
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that SPD politician Kevin Kühnert converted a populist spot kick at the 2018 World Cup when Russia refused an ARD journalist entry to the World Cup: “An opportunity wasted. With an entry ban on Béla Réthy, Putin really would have can collect points in Germany.” Later at the tournament, the ZDF reporter Réthy summed up the performance of the German team during the preliminary round in a single sentence when he said during the game against South Korea: “None of this is slow motion here, these are real pictures.”
In his book, for which Béla Réthy wrote the above-cited “Insertion”, Jörg Dahlmann also tells a story from a different time – back then, when there were no mobile phones. In those early days at ZDF, Dahlmann was returning from Nuremberg with his colleague Thomas Hermann when the signal from BR3 traffic radio rang out: “An urgent message: Thomas Hermann and Jörg Dahlmann may please contact Béla Réthy!”
Dahlmann remembers that such urgent announcements were otherwise only for wrong-way drivers. But what was the reason for the unusual message? Quite simply: Réthy had left his documents for a water polo event in Spandau in the car with the two. Dahlmann today: “Béla was often a little absent-minded, but a wonderful guy.” In this sense, happy 66th birthday, a memorable farewell game and a peaceful retirement. Good luck, dear Béla Réthy!
