The Sunday Times June 5, 2022 5ON TV TUESDAY
Germany v England
7pm, Channel 4,
kick-off 7.45pmGünter Netzer was at his peak when
he gave one of his free-spirited
interviews to Kicker, the German
magazine. He bemoaned the “aura
of dumbness” that surrounded
football and observed: “Forget all
the clichés about team-mates being
great mates: that’s cobblers.”
The article caused outrage and
Netzer’s manager at Borussia
Mönchengladbach, Hennes
Weisweiler, said that the legendary
Sepp Herberger — coach of West
Germany’s 1954 World Cup-winning
team — wanted to come and see
him. The long-suffering Weisweiler
added a personal plea: “Take him
anywhere you choose but, please,
not to your discotheque.”
The latter was a nightclub called
Lovers Lane, which Netzer opened
in 1971. It was the hottest spot in
Mönchengladbach, with an artsy
black and white interior, designed
by Netzer’s girlfriend, and football
shirt on the wall — ripped in two
and covered in geometric prints by
an abstract artist from Düsseldorf.
Netzer’s inspiration for Lovers
Lane was a beachside disco in Tel
Aviv owned by the British model,
made famous by the Profumo
scandal, Mandy Rice-Davies, which
he visited on a trip to Israel with his
club — sneaking out of a hotel and
scaling a fence with a journalist
friend to explore the city’s nightlife.
Of course, Netzer did take
Herberger to Lovers Lane and
ended up charming the great man.
Even though Herberger was 74 and
“it was the first time in his life he
had been in a disco. The place was
unbelievably loud. We were
shouting at each other to be heard.”
This yarn is in a colourful
tapestry of stories told in Netzer’s
rich new memoir, Aus der Tiefe des
Raumes (Out of Deep Space),
published in English as Wembley
1972...And Other Big Feats. That title
is a pun on Netzer’s large boot size
(a 12, despite being 5ft 10in) and
part reference to one of his best
performances when West Germany
beat England 3-1 at Wembley, 50
years ago, in a European
Championship quarter-final.
The game marked the end of
England’s golden age under Alf
Ramsey and the start of a German
one in which they won Euro ’72 and
the 1974 World Cup. And Netzer, their
sauntering, long-haired No 10 was
the architect. In his match
report, the late, great Hugh
McIlvanney pinpointed
Netzer’s ability to “explode
out of his normal strolling
gait into a thrilling
penetrating gallop”.
He was unique, a
playmaker who
roamed into
defensive areas
(hence “out of
deep space”)without ever seeming pressured or
rushed, but who could then project
the play forward with devastating
directness — whether through a
long, balanced, slaloming dribble,
or long, gorgeous pass on to an
attacker’s toes. Replaying footage of
that ’72 game, then bingeing on
highlights reels, the biggest
sensation is of watching a footballer
playing his own game — one
appreciating time, positions and
situations a little differently to
others on the pitch.
Lovely footballers as the likes of
Kai Havertz and Mason Mount are,
there will not be a Netzer on the
field when England and Germany
meet again on Tuesday — because
the game stopped accommodating
individualists years ago. And
Netzer, nicknamed Rebell Am Ball
(“Rebel on the Ball”) was an
individualist’s individualist.
From a middle class family,
Mönchengladbach were his local
club and he was pivotal in their rise
from provincial obscurity to
become the first back-to-back
Bundesliga winners in 1970 and- He left in 1973, for Real
Madrid, but only after winning the
German Cup in his final game.
Weisweiler left him out of the
starting XI so he took the liberty of
subbing himself on in added time
before immediately scoring a
spectacular winner.
Never a conformist, he admits his
“greatest pleasure, even today, is
being lazy” and that the traditional
German view of football being
“about sweat and tears” was never
for him. He loved fast cars, wore
suede trousers and was the first
German player to have shoulder-
length hair. He was linked with
actresses like Raquel Welch and his
friends were intellectuals.
His unconventional playing style
and creative brilliance, allied to his
off-field persona, made Netzer a
hero of counterculture and he was
offered an honorary professorship
by Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Sometimes he walked off the
training pitch because he was
bored and twice he just upped and
flew home from summer tours with
Mönchengladbach. “I did not see
why I should spend my free time
with the same people I was wedded
to professionally,” he explains.
After playing, Netzer became
general manager of Hamburg and
his first coup was to persuade
Kevin Keegan not to leave.
Netzer was integral in building
Hamburg’s 1983 European
Cup-winning team. A
television career followed
before he retired to
Switzerland.
It is remarkable it
has taken until now
for this adventurer
— 78 in September —
to produce a
memoir, but then
again Netzer did
always do things at
his own pace. Fifty
years on from him
bestriding Wembley, it is
time to remember Der Rebell.
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own game 50 years ago
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time to rememJosé now, finding out how camp is
going, how my family are. With
Gareth, when I was going through a
difficult spell last season at Chelsea,
he was messaging me, calling me,
asking about my mental health, how
I’ve been coping.”
Abraham fell from first choice at
Chelsea, under Frank Lampard, to an
often unused substitute after Thomas
Tuchel arrived. He talks about the
importance, for strikers, in retaining
self-belief and how at Roma he is on a
mission to “prove doubters wrong”.
He reckons he has developed
technically and tactically. “I’ve had
to mature,” he said. “I’ve always been
a goalscorer but I’ve had to improve
different things: hold-up play,
beating players. I’ve found out about
myself that I’m good at this thing —
let’s work more on it.”
Other English players have been
asking about Italy — but for nightlife
tips he would refer them to Fikayo
Tomori. Abraham’s former Chelsea
team-mate is in Milan, and a Serie A
winner with AC. “Fikayo is in party
land, I’m more in the family zone,”
Abraham said. “This year was mostly
to focus on myself, sorting out living
and learning about my areas. But I
would like to go round Italy. I’ve seen
beautiful things on the internet and
once I get some time I’ll take a trip.”eker as his country’s leading
scorer in major finals.
The discussion will soon be, how
far can he extend the record? He can
look to Brady for inspiration again:
Kane’s hero has won four Super Bowls
since turning 36 and recently
reversed his decision to retire, com-
mitting himself to another gruelling
NFL campaign. The precedents for
England strikers going on and on are
not considerable. Rooney and Nat
Lofthouse scored three international
goals in their thirties and Alan Shearer
none.
Neither Michael Owen nor Jimmy
Greaves played for their country past- Lineker did score 19 times after
turning 29, however, and another of
Kane’s role models is Robert Lewan-
dowski, who at 33 is more potent than
ever, and has accrued 24 Poland goals
since his 29th birthday.
Kane has just had one of his best
seasons in terms of staying injury-
free, playing 59 times for club and
country, and at Spurs has been re-en-
Wayne Rooney (2003-18)
Bobby Charlton (1958-70)
Harry Kane (2015- )
Gary Lineker (1984-92)
Jimmy Greaves (1959-67)
Michael Owen (1998-2008)
Tom Finney (1946-58)
Nat Lofthouse (1950-58)
Alan Shearer (1992-2000)53
49
49
48
44
40
30
30
30HIS REMARKABLE GOAL-SCORING RECORD
How many could he get? Most goals for England (all-time)
Since Harry Kane’s
England debut in 2015, he
has averaged 6.1 goals a
year for his country. At that
rate he would reach 100
goals by the end of 2030,
when he would be 37.
6.1
Kane’s yearly
goal average
for Englandergised by Antonio Conte’s accom-
plished management.
With the club back in the Champi-
ons League and their owners injecting
£150 million to help Conte in the trans-
fer market, Kane is in a different posi-
tion to a year ago, when he pushed for
a move to Manchester City, perceiving
that his club lacked ambition. The
likeliest scenario is a contract
extension.
The Brady 6 ends with its subject
musing about how he still feels maybe
nobody rates him. The desire to prove
others wrong and improve himself is
what gets him out of bed and makes
him train harder than anyone else, he
says. “I’m going to earn it — every sin-
gle day,” are Brady’s closing words.
This came to mind when hearing
Tammy Abraham talk about under-
studying Kane. “I’ve always said that
he is probably the best striker in the
world, and that’s not just speaking
from watching him on TV, that’s train-
ing with him and playing with him,”
the Roma player said.
“We could be doing set plays in
training and the ball might bounce to
him, or fall in his path, and he bangs it
in the top corner. It’s someone who
has really worked on himself. He is
who he is because of that journey.”Kane and
Brady, right,
became
friends
after first
chatting on
InstagramAbraham’s time in Rome has had
a transformative effect on him