Sepp Herberger

Sepp Herberger was a very popular German soccer coach of the postwar era. Soccer is easily Germany's Number One Sport, so it's no surprise that Herberger was a celebrity well-known even to non-fans such as myself.

There's probably a lot to be said about Herberger's qualities as a coach, about how he refined the game and motivated his team. However, these days he lives on in Germany's collective memory for some of the pithy sayings he uttered in interviews and on other occasions. Here are some of the most famous:

• The ball is round, the game is 90 minutes. That's all that matters.
• After the game is before the game.
• The next game is always the hardest one.
• Soccer is 80% instinct. I never claimed to be intelligent. It was always others who said I was intelligent.
• Nobody in Germany knows as much about soccer as I do.

These days, Herberger's memory is kept alive by re-quotes and misquotes of these sayings by contemporary soccer celebrities. For example, vees tells me that it's repeated in the first few minutes of Lola Rennt.