July 22 – Uwe Seeler, one of the iconic figures of post-war German football who skippered West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, has died at the age of 85, officials said Thursday.
Seeler played a total of 72 matches for West Germany between 1954 to 1970, scoring 33 goals, and was one of the major architects of the reconstruction of German football after the Second World War,
Seeler played for his beloved Hamburg from 1952-73 and went on to scored 507 goals in 587 competitive games, 137 of them in the Bundesliga, a club record. He was later club president but resigned in 1998 because of a financial scandal in which he was not implicated.
Seeler’s finest moment was captaining the West Germany team that reached the 1966 final at Wembley, albeit losing 4-2 to hosts England after extra-time. It remains arguably the most famous World Cup final ever because of the controversy over whether Geoff Hurst’s goal to put England 3-2 up actually crossed the line.
Seeler always insisted that the goal should not have been awarded.
“I was standing at the back of the box and saw exactly that the ball didn’t cross the line,” he said in 2016. “We were all in a state of commotion, none of us knew what was going on. No one (in the West Germany team) could understand why the goal was given.”
At the end of the match, Seeler picked up his collapsed teammates one by one and led them on a lap of honour.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commented on Twitter: “He was a role model for many, a football legend and of course an honorary citizen of Hamburg. I was permitted to give the after-dinner speech for his 80th birthday: We actually all want to be like our Uwe – self-confident and modest. He will be missed.”
Germany’s women’s team has announced that it will play its Euro quarter-final against Austria on Thursday evening wearing black armbands.
Hamburg mourned the loss of a “legend”.
“Uwe Seeler stands for everything that characterizses a good person: down-to-earth, loyalty, joie de vivre, and he was always approachable. He is the epitome of HSV,” the club’s sports director Jonas Boldt said.
“I personally have a special memory of our being together on his last birthday. He talked shop, asked about his HSV, gave me tips and a few jokes. We will never forget him and will always cherish him.”
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