“If there was a brick wall there and the ball was on the other side, then Uwe Seeler would go right through it,” said the Northern Ireland international Jimmy McIroy. Such was the reputation of the squat little centre-forward whose very name became a war cry – “Uwe, Uwe, Uwe!” – for fans of West Germany in the 1950s and 60s.
Seeler, who has died aged 85, played for his country in four World Cups, even though, between the 1962 and 1966 competitions, he had to be fitted with an artificial achilles tendon. Before the more elegant and technical era of Franz Beckenbauer, and even some distance into it, he represented the traditional strengths of German football: power, high morale, commitment and an indomitable will to win.
