Horst Eckel, the last hero of Bern, died at the age of 89. As the youngest world champion in 1954, he kept the story of the miracle alive – he coped with fame better than many companions.
Obituary from
Holger Gertz
In the “Fritz Walter Book”, a standard work on old football, there is also a nice anecdote about Horst Eckel, because the story of Walter is fundamentally and generally always the story of Eckel. Fritz (reverently called Friedrich) was the old man, the Horst was the boy, so it was at Eckel’s very first international match, 1952 in Augsburg against Switzerland. At that time Horst Eckel was asked if he wasn’t nervous before the big game. But Eckel replied, at least that’s what the old ham says: “When I saw Kohli, Friedrich and Ottes kumme up there, I just thought: Well, that’s exactly like uff’m Betzeberg.”
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