The 2006 World Cup in Germany

I’ll confront the reader right away with the absolutely shocking realisation for the soon-to-be-named “summer fairy tale”: For me, the World Cup was not only weak but also boring. There were hardly any good games and also very little suspense, let alone any big “sensations”. It was very strange for me that Ghana’s success in…

The Football World Cup in France 1998

Privately, things had been moving again before this final round. Despite the numerous “on and offs” with Annette, Chiara’s mother, we had got together again for a while – a very nice time in the middle of ’97 – and “reaped” the “fruits” of this reconciliation on 30 January: she gave birth to another child…

The 1994 World Cup in the USA

1) Pre-World Cup The tournament once again had a very special event in its prehistory: On 27 May, I became the father of a daughter named Chiara-Pauline. The fact that my marriage was divorced and that my daughter’s mother was another woman named Annette, who already had two children of her own, all of whom…

The 1990 World Cup in Italy

This World Cup in particular has left a deep imprint on my memory. The main reason is that for the first time, if you like, I approached it with a kind of “professional approach”. In retrospect, I would describe it as decidedly amateurish, but the basis had been created. In this case, a numerical basis.…

The 1986 World Cup in Mexico

After my temporary Hamburg gig, I had returned to Berlin. Since I just couldn’t get Britta – or could I? For details, please refer to the amorous chapter “Britta” told elsewhere – in a fit of weakness, I got involved with Ilona. We lived together in the “Hotel Papa”. I also stayed at the university…

The 1982 World Cup in Spain

For this World Cup, too, I think that my memoirs draw attention to a few special features that have not yet been presented in this form. Of course, I hope that the reader’s interest will focus on this attention and such marginal notes or additional reflections on my part. Because simply mentioning “the scandalous match…

The 1978 World Cup in Argentina

Just freshly equipped with the Abitur and then still in a very fresh, but in the meantime firm love affair with Angie, which came about under very special, but nevertheless partly unpleasant circumstances, as they broke up another friendship – with me as the culprit –, the 1978 World Cup was rather just a highly…

The 1974 World Cup in Germany

Now mature and at the age of 15, this World Cup produces far fewer memories than one would expect. The reason might be that at the age of puberty, the opposite sex suddenly exerted a fascination triggered by apparent aloofness? While at previous ages the whole thing seemed quite unproblematic to me and I could…