Club
06.01.23
70 Years Unique - 70 Years "Manni" Kaltz
The most successful player in HSV history celebrates his 70th birthday today, 6th January. His successes and record are just as unfortgettable as his special style of play and his very own character.
Great athletes usually bear their own signature. Their game is characterised by a certain uniqueness, which is often expressed in a special movement pattern that is almost impossible to defend: Michael Jordan's fadeaway, Zinedine Zidane's Marseille turn or Roger Federer's one-handed backhand - the greats of their sport have their own trademark, an inimitable signature move. HSV legend Manfred "Manni" Kaltz already had such a move at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, when he stood for the so-called "banana cross" like no other player in German professional football and was even considered its inventor. His crosses with the notoriously curved trajectory not only earned him the nickname "Bananen-Manni" (Banana Man), but also coined one of the most iconic football slogans of all time: "Manni Banane, ich Kopf - Tor" (Manni banana, I head - goal), is how Horst Hrubesch, now director of youth development at HSV and at the time the main recipient of Kaltz's exemplary crosses, once summed up HSV's unbeatable attacking pattern.
Title and record man
Together, Kaltz and Hrubesch were not only a congenial duo, but above all an extremely successful one, even if the full-back, who laced up his football boots for HSV for almost two decades from 1971 to 1989 and 1990 to 1991, was even more successful: German champion three times (1979, 1982 and 1983), DFB Pokal winner twice (1976 and 1987), European Cup winner of the national champions once each (1983) and European Cup winner (1977) - in the sometimes illustrious circle of numerous HSV legends, no one has collected so many trophies, namely all the trophies won by the club during this period, since the beginning of professional football. In addition, no one has played as many Bundesliga matches with the diamond on his chest - 581 in all. This makes Kaltz the HSV record player to this day!
The Palatinate native, born on 6 January 1953 in Ludwigshafen, also holds several league records more than 30 years after his career ended. For example, no player in the Bundesliga scored more often from the spot than penalty kick specialist Kaltz, who scored 53 (on 60 attempts - also a record) of his total of 76 Bundesliga goals from penalties. Another signature move, albeit without a fixed pattern, as the 1.84 metre tall right-footer sank at will in all directions. Fun fact: With six own goals, Kaltz also shares the "best mark" for the most goals into his own net with Nikolce Noveski (1. FSV Mainz 05). The right-back, who often marched up and down the track with his socks rolled down, outwardly nonchalant but extremely industrious, embodied the modern full-back even back then and was one of the best players of the entire century in this position.
Silent Representative
Titles, goals, triumphs and at the same time the aforementioned unmistakable style of play - Kaltz automatically advanced to stardom at that time, even though he tended to reject the hype surrounding his person and was regarded as a quiet representative. Outwardly, he was more of a taciturn and therefore ironically also called a "chatterbox", which did not mean that his word had no weight inside the dressing room. On the contrary, as no less a person than Franz Beckenbauer once revealed: "We all discussed a topic for hours and simply didn't get to the end. Kaltz listened the whole time, then he said a single sentence and afterwards there was silence. The rest of us then thought about Manni's words first."
However, others were in the limelight at HSV and in the national team, for which "Manni" played 69 international matches (eight goals) and with whom he was European champion in 1980 and runner-up in the 1982 World Cup. It is fitting that Kaltz's career was by no means only characterised by highlights. Not least with the eagle on his chest, there were also lows, including a falling out with national coach Jupp Derwall, the "disgrace of Cordoba" or the "disgrace of Gijon". "Take a close look at my career. Then you will see that I have almost as many first places as second places. It was always back and forth," the HSV record-holder himself once looked back.
Always HSV
His relationship with HSV also went back and forth at the end of his active career. In 1989, the then 36-year-old left the club, which he had joined in 1970 as a youth player from TuS Altrip, because he was no longer offered a long-term contract. After two French intermezzi with Girondins Bordeaux and FC Mulhouse, the legend returned to Volkspark just one season later and ended his career after 13 more Bundesliga games in the HSV kit and after a total of 19 years - as is well known without a farewell game. An omission by the club and justified annoyance from the point of view of the record-breaking player, who apart from that received all of the club's highest honours: self-explanatory, he opened the "Walk of Fame" at the Uwe Seeler foot together with Charly Dörfel and Hermann Rieger on 5 May 2006 with the imprint of his right foot. He was also one of the very few to receive the HSV ring of honour in gold.
Even away from HSV and the right side of the pitch, Kaltz quickly gained a foothold after his active career. Busy in many different business sectors as a sales director, real estate agent or investment advisor, he always remained true to football - both as a co-trainer with a football teaching licence and with his own football school in Hamburg. Kaltz, a record-breaking player, has not lost sight of HSV either, even though he never rejoined the club and the former right-back often had a bad word to say about his club. His criticism: always new people, but few concepts and strategies. A typical Kaltz - he says what he thinks.
The Ludwigshafen player is likely to enjoy the current sporting situation, which is characterised by continuity in terms of personnel and a high degree of permeability in the junior ranks. No wonder, since it doesn't take too much imagination to picture Manfred Kaltz in the courageous HSV team with its very own idea of playing on the right wing. A great sportsman with his own signature and a movement that cannot be defended. Robert Glatzel would be happy to receive plenty of "banana crosses" in the centre ...
All the best for your 70th birthday and stay the way you are, dear "Manni"!