Rudi Völler celebrates his 65th birthday: The man who never went completely off

Held, Volksstribun, Rudi Nationale. When it comes to Rudi Völler, the Germans are no title. It should be one of the most popular people in Germany, if not the most popular. On April 13th he celebrates his 65th birthday.

He does not think of a pension at the moment, although he would have done a lot of time and really deserved it: from 1977 to 1996 he was on the pitch for the Kickers from Offenbach, TSV 1860 Munich, AS Rome, Olympique Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen. There are also 90 caps for the German national team.

His track record as a player: World Champion in 1990, Vice World Champion in 1986, Vice European Champion in 1992, Champions League winner with Olympique Marseille 1993, Coppa-I-ITIA-SIENER 1991 with AS ROM. And as a trainer: Vice World Champion 2002. In addition, he was a sports director and member of the management of Bayer Leverkusen for many, many years.

Rudi Völler’s popularity is also documented by numerous awards and prices: footballers of the year, Bambi, Federal Cross of Merit, Silber’s Laurelblatt, Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and many more. The Sky original documentary “Rudi Völler – The Documentation” is currently being built, in which, in addition to Rudi Völler, companions such as Lothar Matthäus (64), Oliver Kahn (55) and Julian Nagelsmann (37) have their say.

How does a person manage from simple conditions to such fame? At Rudi Völler it was not just the many goals with which he delighted his teams and millions of football fans. His father, the turner and warehouse manager Kurt Völler (1925-2016), had brought Rudolf, born in Hanau in 1960 and his 13-year-old brother Dieter (died in lung cancer in 2014), to unmistaked, straight, straight people.

Before Rudi started his career as a football professional, he had noticed Hanau as a goal -hungry talent at TSV 1860. But first he had to graduate and end his apprenticeship as an office clerk. After that, a breathtaking career began.

He reached an unforgettable highlight of the veneration at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he was already extremely popular as a center forward of AS Rome. At the round of 16 against Holland, he is fouled and spit on the Dutch world class player Frank Rijkaard (62). Völler is outraged, but he does not return, no blow, not even a kick. Rijkaard sees red, but also Völler. The German fans romp, even the 2-1 win of the Germans changes little. “Ruuudi-Ruuudi” choirs are having a long time through the stadium.

After the game, Rijkaard apologizes: “I had personal problems and went into the game particularly irritably. That had to discharge. I didn’t have a grip on private difficulties. Unfortunately, I can’t undo it. Everyone makes mistakes, I’m sorry”.

He also says that the red card for Völler is “completely unjustified”. He forgives the sinner and says a typical Völler sentence: “It just happened, done, over.” The two even made friendship, six years later they appear together in a commercial for a dairy: Völler and Rijkaard sit in a blind in white bathrobes at the table and smile to the slogan: “With real butter you can get everyone together.”

Rudi’s new nickname had shortened shortly before. His friend and teammate Thomas Berthold (60) had called him “Aunt Käthe” because of the gray strands in his Vokuhila-Lockenpracht: Germany was so enthusiastic that the Cologne dialect band Höhner released the song “Aunt Käthe” in 2001 and thus paid homage to the later national coach.

The elongated “Ruuudi-Ruuudi” calls in the stadiums were musically supplemented by another hit from 2002. Then thousands of fans sang the song of the band La Rocca “There is only one ‘Rudi Völler” for the melody of “Guantanamera”.

Another milestone in his vita is the “anger speech” in the ARD on September 6, 2003. His team, the German national team, had just achieved a disappointing 0-0 in an EM qualification game in Iceland, and Völler entered the TV studio and had to listen to with commentator Gerhard Delling (65) and his expert Günter Netzer (80) (80) as “absolute low” put down.

Rudi was angry. “I know my two boys from the ARD, the Günter and also Mr. Delling – that’s a nice mess, which he says. “Always the thing with the low point and again a low point and a lower low point. I can no longer hear this shit.”

In the meantime his face had started dark red. “In what world do you all live?”, He screams more than he asks: “You have to come down from your high horse. What you always imagine what we have to play for a football here in Germany. You have earlier – the Günter what they played for a shit!

Moderator Waldemar Hartmann (77) tried to calm him down and got to hear: “You are easily comfortable on your chair here, drank three wheat beer and are nice and relaxed.”

With this great moment of Holy anger, not only the football people have apparently brought Rudi Völler to heart forever. When he took over the national team for a game in a deep crisis of German football in 2023 and France made 2-1, his popularity became a kind of worship. The fact that he recently extended his DFB contract as a sports director until 2028 made the headlines immediately like a world event.

He will celebrate his birthday – “I’m just a little old school” – with his family (Italian wife, three adult sons, a daughter), there will be a lot of friends, congratulate him and thank him for his friendship.

The old buddy Waldi Hartmann will certainly be among the well -wishers. He not only owes Völler to the live highlight of his rage speech, but also a nice stick of money. “Rudi secured my retirement provision with a single television interview,” said Hartmann years ago. He was captured by a highly attractive advertising contract with a large brewery.