World champion, brilliant technician, legend of 1. FC Köln and much more. Wolfgang Overath also shows greatness off the pitch. This Friday he celebrates his 80th birthday.
There’s nothing dragging about the gait, and certainly nothing like that of an older person. No way! And yet: someone is coming to you who will be 80 years old in a few days. Wolfgang Overath dances more than he walks; he greets an acquaintance with a handshake without breaking his stride. The man wants to go to the podium to present his new book, which he wrote together with the journalist Sven Pistor. He’s there on time, but the “connection date” is already waiting. If you like, his whole life is a follow-up appointment, so he runs away from his age – physically and mentally – in jeans and a white shirt as a “best ager”.
The book is entitled “You can’t win alone”, and at the front of the microphone the man, whose age has long since surpassed the still-ideal weight of 73 kilograms, talks about team spirit and changed thinking. And the more he chats and his answers deviate from the questions asked, the clearer it becomes: there is a satisfied person sitting there.
Sure, he also flirts with this number. 80. He’s as fit as a fiddle, still plays indoors with his friends twice a week, and if it’s true that wisdom is more likely to be found under wrinkles than under smooth skin, then he can proudly present his weather-beaten face. The fact that he still speaks of “a relatively bad day that is coming soon” may be fishing for compliments and he can be forgiven. But with every sentence he says, with every thought he spins, with every reaction, he expresses it clearly and clearly: 80 is there as a number, but it does not describe any condition, certainly no decline, for Wolfgang Overath. Not physically, mentally not three times. Anyone who knows and observes him can be sure: If the Grim Reaper shows up at the Overaths’ door in Siegburg, the landlord will send him away: “Don’t be angry, I can’t now, I have a follow-up appointment!”
Overath shaped the Bundesliga from the start
Wolfgang Overath (right) against Saarbrücken in 1963. imago/Ferdi Hartung
The Bundesliga is 60 years old, and the then 19-year-old Overath has shaped it from the start. He scored his club’s first goal in a 2-0 win in Saarbrücken on the very first matchday. After a one-two with Hans Schäfer, he scores – with his left, of course. He scored eight goals in this debut season, the important 1-0 six times. National coach Sepp Herberger brought him into the national team after a handful of games; he became part of a generation that would successfully carry German football through the next decade.
Overath feels “gratitude” for having founded an era of the national team with greats like Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and Uwe Seeler, which today everyone who was able to consciously experience it is still a mixture of Awe and enthusiasm speaks. The thing with Günter Netzer is somehow part of it, two brilliant friends who don’t get along on the pitch, but for life. To this day, both of them can live well with it and deal with it even better.
The first championship in his first year as a professional was followed by five milestones as cornerstones of a beautiful and successful career: the 1966 World Cup with the dramatic decision in extra time of the final against hosts England (2:4 n.V.). The revenge against the reigning world champion four years later in Mexico in the quarter-finals (3:2 n.V.) and the “game of the century” against Italy in one of the most exciting games in football history (3:4 n.V.). The 1974 World Cup with success in the final against the Netherlands (2:1). He finally won this title and then retired from the national team. And three years later, the end of his career after unpleasant arguments with Cologne coach Hennes Weisweiler.
“Three World Cups, twice in the final, finishing first, second and third and playing in every World Cup game – that’s a record that is impressive,” sums up the former midfielder, whose career has been described so often that he too People who have never seen him play live can describe it: technically perfect, ambitious to the limit.
Greatest triumph: In 1974, Overath (right, with Gerd Müller) became world champion with Germany. imago/press photo Baumann
Almost to Bayern
Overath appears 28 times in the kicker rankings for German football, 14 times in the international class and 8 times in the world class. What is missing, in addition to the championship in 1964 and the two cup victories in 1968 and 1977, are further titles with 1. FC Köln. Or the other way around: The fact that FC is too often an unfulfilled promise certainly cost Overath a few trophies. FC Bayern is constantly courting him; after his brilliant 1970 World Cup in Mexico, foreign countries are tempting with a lot of money, but he remains loyal to his club. Saved him from relegation in 1969. If things had gone wrong that season, he would have put on the Bayern jersey from the coming season. So he stays with the billy goats.
Overath has long been able to afford this loyalty. The money earned is well spent. While other colleagues of his generation consider saving and investing to be something reprehensible and take the unusual wealth to the pubs and clubs, he invests the money in real estate. At some point, the young professional calms his father, who he had really frightened with his decision not to take his high school diploma and go for professional football, when he drives him through Siegburg in a convertible and shows the houses that belong to him. Overath never forgets his father’s tears of joy and reassurance throughout his life.
Wolfgang was born in 1943 as the youngest of eight children, in the middle of the war that Germany had started. His eldest brother dies on the Eastern Front, and a second brother is shot by an occupying soldier. A tragic mistake, in front of the parents’ eyes. To this day, Overath still asks himself what people can endure. He discusses them with the good Lord. The believing Christian never forgets to thank “the one above” for a life that gave him a lot and shaped him in such a way that he was ready to give something back at an early age. “I pray every night,” he says, “out of gratitude for being able to have such a great life.”
Overath is committed to helping the poorest
The “Wolfgang Overath Fund” is well filled, and the current book fee also flows into it. He had two multi-family houses built for the homeless and donated an estimated two and a half to three million euros for social projects. Every year before Christmas he invites those who are not settled to a big celebration. In 2003, he did not receive honorary citizenship of his hometown Siegburg because of his sporting successes. His commitment to the poorest of the poor provides the impetus for this honor, which makes him proud because Siegburg is more than just home.
The city’s commemorative publication states: “Despite his great sporting successes, Wolfgang Overath always remained true to his high ideals and maintained his personal modesty. This makes him a great role model.” Siegburg is the basis of his life, which he has shared with his Karin for 57 years. On the streets that were painstakingly cleared of rubble in the post-war period, he got to know football; on the ash pitches between the Rhine and Sieg he gained the toughness that later distinguished him – the fine technician – and in the combination he matured into a world star leaves.
Finally, those who reduce Overath’s actions in Cologne to his time as president of the club should be mentioned. What went well and what went badly is completely unimportant today. On the 4th matchday of the current season, they prove who these critics actually are. Before the game against Hoffenheim, they remembered the club’s great personalities and successes in a choreo to mark the 100th anniversary of the Müngersdorf Stadium. The heroes of the past such as club founder Franz Kremer, Heinz Flohe and Dieter Müller are there on the large banner. Also Jonas Hector and Lukas Podolski. Not there: Wolfgang Overath. The greatest player in FC history – like Toni Schumacher – is ignored. In a way, this is also an award.
2023-09-28 22:00:01
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