He, Manni Manni - Manni, Manni, Manni Burgsmuller
By: Dave | January 10th, 2008He could have become the most hated German player in England given his blond hair and unerring eye for a goal but while other strikers such as Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann (for a while) were despised by the Wembley hoards, the lovely England supporters never got chance to vent their spleen on a certain Manni Burgsmüller 
.
Despite being a prolific marksman throughout his career Burgsmüller was restricted to just three international appearances in a footballing life (if including his time as a professional American football player) that lasted an incredible 32 years.
Burgsmüller began his career at Rot Weiss Essen (many of my entries may have a Rot Weiss angle for some reason) before switching to nearby Dortmund where, for seven seasons, he was a virtual ever-present and won the heart of the fans by scoring 135 goals (still a club record) in 224 games.
Discarded by BVB at the age of 34, Manni spent a year at Nürnberg before being dispatched to the lower leagues where he regularly knocked them in for Rot Weiss Oberhausen. Legend has it, that the then Werder Bremen coach Otto Rehhagel disguised himself as a fan (though whether he attached multiple scarves around his waist to form a skirt as is popular among some supporters is unclear) at one particular game before signing Manni back to the Bundesliga at the age of 36 with the player winning his first Bundesliga title in 1988 at the age of 39! Could this be an omen for Dortmund’s chances next season after possibly signing an equally old man in Jens Lehmann?
Manni played his last game for Werder Bremen in 1990 but was coaxed out of retirement to play American football in Dusseldorf as a kicker where he played until 2002 - by this time aged 52.
Here’s a clip of Manni from 1988 scoring against Dynamo Berlin (a team I’ve been told to avoid now I’ve moved to the capital). A goal that every schoolkid dreams of - a glorious diving header from a beautifully flighted cross.
Dave Allan is a professional writer who blogs about his other passion horseracing at betfair.com.
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Comments
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During the 7ties and beginning 8ties RWE created a bunch of excellent strikers like Lippens, the mighty Hrubesch, Frank Mill or Jürgen Wegmann to name only the most famous. Sadly they had to sell them all and so never made it back to the Bundesliga (where those players played very succesfully for other teams after they’d left the
club). This is another tragic part of the more recent RWE history, a story of unremitting failure!Posted from
United States
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I started following the Bundesliga in 1990 and missed out on Burgsmüller, so I only knew his name, because people kept referring to him quite often. So this was a welcome insight into his career!
Andre: I guess there are many clubs who have a similarly tragic history. A lot of smaller clubs often unearth great talent, that gets snatched away by the big boys all the time, preventing the smaller club from making it back to the centre stage.
Posted from
Germany -
Andre, Yes the unremitting failure. Don’t you just love it.
It’s a shame no-one decided to buy Alexander Löbe for big bucks - one of the worst RWE players of all time and certainly the worst captain.Jan, Thought I might have been treading on old ground but glad I have not. I found his career interesting.
A story about him appeared in my Google Alerts e-mails - normally the only stories they send me are the ones I’ve written myself for my RWE blog!
Posted from
United States -
I’d be careful of calling RWE a small club. If it had not been for financial mismanagement in the past they would certainly be ahead of clubs such as Bochum and Schalke in terms of fans in the region.
Posted from
United States -
True, but in reality they aren’t and I’m not calling China a big football nation, just because they have the theoretical potential to be one.
Posted from
Germany
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