Media thread 2022/23

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zebbemacahan said:
I know not many can read the article in the link below (since it is in swedish and probably also behind a paywall). But the story is about Bert Trautmanns life and his time as a goalkeeper in City and how he became a symbol of reconciliation of sorts, after WW2. It was published by one of Swedens biggest newspapers and it was a great and interesting read.

Don’t really know what I want to say by this. I guess it felt good to read something about the FA-cup final and Manchester City that wasn’t centered around allegations about financial breaches or how we must be stopped at all costs.

https://www.dn.se/sport/tyska-krigsfangen-blev-fa-cuphjalte-med-bruten-nacke/
Click to expand...

I'm a Swede as well and it was an extremely joyable read. Thank you very much!

I won't waste my time to manually translate this article, so I used DeepL to do it for me...



He fought for Nazi Germany, but was captured and moved to England. There he took up his football career.
In 1956 he won the FA Cup final - with a broken neck.
Bernhard 'Bert' Trautmann is a legendary goalkeeping hero at Manchester City, the club that could win the cup for the seventh time on Saturday.


The world's oldest football competition has been played since 1872 and this year marks 100 years since Wembley first hosted the final.

Many heroic stories have been created in the FA Cup since its inception, but few can match Bernhard Trautmann's.

He is the decorated Nazi who went from being hated in his new home country to being loved even by the opposing fans. His farewell match could not be completed because the crowd ran onto the pitch to celebrate him.

- I joined the army at the age of 17. I was a paratrooper and fought in Russia for three years. I was in Arnhem and the Ardennes, in France after D-Day. I was captured and came to England. It was only then that my training started, at the age of 22," he says in the book "Trautmann's journey" written by Catrine Clay.

It is May 5, 1956. 100,000 spectators are crammed into Wembley in London. Five million Britons are watching the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Birmingham City on television. Before the game, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, shakes hands with the players, as is customary.

After 1-1 at the break, Manchester City score two quick goals to make it 3-1. But the ending is dramatic. 17 minutes before the final whistle, goalkeeper Bernhard Trautmann lunges for the ball, but collides with Birmingham's Peter Murphy. He takes Murphy's knee in the neck.

Trautmann is knocked unconscious, but recovers and receives treatment for several minutes. Substitutions are not allowed at this time, even in cases of serious injury. So Trautmann gets up and plays on.

Despite severe pain, he makes a couple of important saves and City hold on.

At the awards ceremony, Prince Philip comments that Trautmann's neck looks crooked, but he tries to straighten up as Queen Elizabeth II hands out the medals.

Three days later, Bernhard Trautmann was diagnosed with a broken neck. But he never hesitated to play on.

- Having fought against partisans in the war, nothing could scare me anymore. Not even a broken neck. You can be a good goalkeeper, but to be a great goalkeeper you have to have courage and heart," he says.

Bernhard Trautmann grew up in Bremen in northern Germany. He was blond, blue-eyed, raised in the Hitler Youth and convinced of the superiority of the German people.

'Berni' survived three years on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. In France, he was buried alive under rubble for three days. When the Allies bombed the Dutch town of Kleve, he was one of 90 Germans who had survived in a regiment of 1 000. He was taken prisoner and transported to England.

After the war, there were at most 400 000 German prisoners of war in the UK. They were divided into three groups. 80% were considered 'neutral', 10% were considered anti-Nazi and the remaining 10% were the hardline group categorized as Nazis.

This included Trautmann, a paratrooper who had been awarded a first class Iron Cross for his service to the Luftwaffe. He was considered a committed Nazi.

The British plan was to restore the Germans. To teach them democracy, to explain what had happened in the concentration camps and eventually return them to Germany.

In 1948, Trautmann was one of the last prisoners to leave the camp and return. But Trautmann decided to stay. He had slowly acclimatized to the country. 'Berni' had become 'Bert' in England and he had met the Englishwoman Marion, with whom he would later have a child.

Meanwhile, the athletic German's goalkeeping career had taken off. When a team of prisoners of war met a local team in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the goalkeeper was injured. So Bert stepped in between the posts.

Word of his skill spread and he was given a trial with St Helens Town. A semi-professional team that increased its average attendance from 1,000 to 5,000 during Trautmann's tenure.

In 1949, he was signed by Manchester City. But this caused an outcry among fans. Not surprisingly, City traditionally had a large Jewish fan base.

Around 20,000 people protested outside the Maine Road stadium and threatened a boycott. Many chanted "war criminals". Trautmann also received death threats. He claimed that he had no choice but to fight for Germany.

An open letter in the Manchester Evening Chronicle, written by Rabbi Alexander Altmann, was instrumental in turning public opinion. Altmann, whose parents were both executed during the war, wrote that Trautmann should not be punished for what the Germans had done, and that everyone deserved a chance.

The deal was done and his debut for Manchester City was at Bolton in November 1949. Soon his popularity grew and by January 1950 he was being celebrated by fans of both teams when Fulham met City in London.

Bert Trautmann became a symbol of post-war reconciliation.

- After a match, I could sign autographs for more than an hour. My teammates asked me why. They didn't understand. As a prisoner of war, I had received so much understanding, so much forgiveness and friendship that I wanted to give something back and show them that there are good Germans, not just bad ones," he says in the book "Trautmann's journey".

He made a total of 508 appearances for the club between 1949 and 1964.

However, the severe neck injury after the cup final meant that he had to re-learn most of his goalkeeping skills. He spent three weeks in hospital and was convalescent for six months. The doctors' verdict was that he would not be able to play football again.

But he had a long and illustrious career. Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton claimed that Trautmann was the best goalkeeper he had ever faced. "Never look him in the eye because he will read your mind," said Charlton.

Trautmann's farewell match, between hopeful teams from Manchester United and Manchester City, attracted 47,000 spectators. The match never finished. Before the final whistle, the pitch was invaded by supporters who wanted to pay tribute to the German.

- I didn't think anyone would come. But they came, from Bolton, Preston, London, Manchester. And I needed the money for my family, I had never earned more than 35 pounds a week," says Trautmann.

At international level, he became an isolated case and never played an international match for either Germany or England. After his career, he managed clubs in England and West Germany before being given international assignments by the West German Football Association. He became coach of countries with no football structure, such as Myanmar, Tanzania, Pakistan and Liberia.

Bert Trautmann died in 2013 at the age of 89. He spent his last years living near Valencia, Spain. In 2018, the German-English film "The keeper" was released about his life.
 
I was listening to talksport yesterday and they were talking about the fa Cup. Conversation ended up on the 90s .

Same the other day on talksport, talking about the derby and they ended up on talking about the 90s and utd.

That's United fans up and down the country nowadays, past glorious instead of talking about now.
 
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