Interviews
Our World Cup winners: Interview with Horst Eckel
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
1954 - 1974 - 1990: Magical numbers in German football. How do the previous World Cup heroes rate the chances of their young successors of today? To start our series of conversations with the World Cup winners of yesteryear, the famous sports journalist Wolfgang Golz interviews Horst Eckel, who was Germany's youngest World Cup winner in Bern in 1954.
Horst Eckel walks into the hotel foyer, slim as a pencil, slightly bowed legs pointing to his earlier sporting passion: Football. Eckel, 74, is a 1954 World Cup winner. At the time he was, at 22 years of age, the youngest member of the team. He looks at his watch. “Punctual to the minute”, he smiles, “even to the second.” Yes, he says, punctuality is important, as is discipline, and he means self-discipline. “We should remember some of the old virtues.” One of the old school. He is now in demand as an expert pundit and contemporary witness of Germany's earliest footballing triumphs.
Golz: Mister Eckel, why will Germany win the World Cup in July?
I'm afraid I can't agree. I'll have to put a question mark over that. We've got a very young team. But this side isn't a real team yet. It lacks experience. The World Cup has come two years too early. That's why it will be difficult for them to win the World Cup.
A rank outsider
The '54 side weren't exactly favourites when the team set off for Switzerland.
We were rank outsiders, even more so than today's team. But a lot can happen in football. I'd be happy if the Miracle of Bern was succeeded by the Miracle of Berlin.
The World Cup is in our own country? How has that affected you?
For the last two years, since the “Miracle of Bern” film was released, I'm away from home all the time. Indeed I can't remember all the events I've been to. I'm at home for maybe two days a week. It's good to have a quiet day now and again. But people come along and ring the doorbell – they usually have a book or shirt with them that they want me to sign. That's not very nice.
And the autograph hunters have rediscovered you?
At least half a dozen a day. It's amazing what they want sometimes! You can only shake your head. Sometimes I get an envelope with 50 or 60 photos in it. I'm not just supposed to sign them but include a dedication as well. A birthday greeting for grandad etc.
Feet on the ground
What impressed you most about winning the 1954 Final?
Having all the qualities necessary to get to the top. The national team coach Sepp Herberger didn't demand it from us, he led by example. That's why it all happened automatically. We've already talked about punctuality. After winning the tournament things changed dramatically and we ventured into circles we would never have been in otherwise. We got to meet politicians and other sportsmen. A lot changed for me but it didn't change me. When I started at 1. FC Kaiserslautern as a young player I promised myself: Horst, if you ever achieve anything, remember where you came from. Keep your feet on the ground.
What sticks in your mind most from that time?
The moment the final whistle blew and we knew we had won the World Cup. And the fact of us having a side that stuck together. I still maintain that we wouldn't have won the World Cup without this comradeship.
Moralistic prophets are calling for spiritual renewal - for example, back to family values. Do you think we can rediscover the ideal of “Eleven friends together” as in 1954?
I hope today's boys go down that road. But they belong to another generation and I've got to question that. I don't know whether they will, or want to, go down that road. The will to fight is important. If that's missing being a great talent won't help.
Money wasn't important
When you won the World Cup the bonus consisted of a black and white television set and a scooter. This time they're offering 250,000 euros.
Money wasn't important for us. We went to Switzerland to play good football and not to earn money. We were happy with every little thing we got. Although the televisions and the scooters weren't that little.
In 1954 Germany lost their first game to Hungary 8-3 and the superior Hungarians were our opponents in the Final as well. According to Sepp Herberger, their outstanding player was Sandor Hidekuti rather than the international star Ferenc Puskas. And then he chose you, the youngest player, to be his marker. Didn't that make your heart sink a little?
No, on the contrary, it was an incentive. I was proud because that was a great vote of confidence in me to be the one to try and mark that world-class player out of the game. I didn't always manage it. But Herberger knew I had strong nerves and that I always tried to give at least 100 per cent. That's how I got to the top in football so quickly: in five years I went from being a member of a third division team to a World Cup winner.
And today you are a living memorial. How do you feel in that role?
I am one of the few still alive from those days (plus Ottmar Walter and Hans Schäfer; ed.) and still mentally and physically fit. Wherever I go I get a warm welcome which is always a great pleasure for me. It is great to know that people still think about us fifty years on ...
Even serious historians acknowledge that the 1954 World Cup win was a driving force in the upturn in post-war Germany which was later called the economic miracle.
The victory did perhaps get things going. But the people felt that not just the eleven players in the Final or the 22 in the squad were World Cup winners. The feeling was we were all World Cup winners. Everybody.
The mood wasn't so intense in 1974 or 1990 ? Not in 2003 either, as our women won the World Cup. What do you think about women's football?
I've supported women's football from the beginning. In the 70s I went along when they played in the next village. To be honest when it all started in the villages back then I sometimes thought: My God, not that. But the game quickly changed and the quality improved dramatically. The national side plays attractive football and are the European champions and World Cup winners. You've got to admire that.
Mister Eckel, you must be one of the lucky ones to have a World Cup ticket?
As World Cup winners we do get tickets of course. I get some for the five World Cup matches in Kaiserslautern and I have also been invited to the opening game and the Final. I could have got tickets for the Germany games but that would have been overdoing things.
Perhaps, you won't just see Germany in the opening match, but in the Final too?
That would be fantastic.
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Horst Eckel was born on 8 February 1932 in Vogelbach in the Rhineland-Palatinate. At the age of just 17 he played for the 1. FC Kaiserslautern first team. The winger made 214 league appearances, scoring 34 goals. He won the German Championship with Kaiserslautern in 1951 and 1953. He represented his country 32 times and won the World Cup in 1954 and a World Cup fourth place in 1958. His football career ended in 1966 at Röchling Völklingen. Originally a mechanic, Eckel started teacher training at the age of 37 and he worked as a secondary school teacher right up to his retirement. Today Horst Eckel is amongst other things a representative of the Sepp-Herberger-Foundation: “That's a great honour for me.”
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