Trautmann, a real legend

So I sat down flicking the channels the other day when I came across the Bert Trautmann story, a goalkeeper for Manchester City mainly in the 50’s and 60’s, he was the first German player to play in a Wembley Cup final and is famously known for breaking his neck vs Birmingham in the 1956 cup final and carrying on leading Manchester City to a 3-1 victory.

But I wanted to know a bit more about him so I sat there for an hour and watched an account of a remarkable man’s life. A man who went from fighting for Germany in the war against England to becoming one of the greatest players to play in England, he had to deal with discontent from Manchester City fans as they were not happy about having a former member of the Luftwaffe on the team, some even threatening to shoot him at the cup final, not to mention the unfortunate death of his first born son at just 5 years old. Trautmann had all that to deal with and still became a legend, not to mention earning £10 a week with a £2 bonus if City won the game, no way near enough money to feed a family showing he played football for the love of it.

The words ‘great’ and ‘legend’ are tossed around and used too much in todays football, Trautmann really was both of these, todays footballers do not realise how good their lives are and how lucky they are to be in such privileged positions, I hope that the footballers of today are educated to understand just what it takes to really be ‘great’.