284: Uwe Rosler, Manchester City, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

Happy Boxing Day! We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and got a suitably questionable array of presents. Today Richard Allinson is taking a look at a German striker who came from the other side of the Iron Curtain to the blue side of Manchester leading the Citizens to celebrate their signing with some culturally insensitive references to the Luftwaffe. At least they didn’t force-feed him some Asda bratwurst I guess. Over to Rich.

This blog was originally meant to be about ex-Blackburn Rovers and England winger Stuart Ripley, but unfortunately for Stuart as I was researching his life and career Uwe Rösler’s name cropped up and his story is genuinely incredible. So off to communist East Germany we go. 

Like most people from these shores, Uwe first came to my attention when he was signed by Brian Horton for Manchester City in 1994. However, a look through the archives delivers a story that started way before he landed slap bang in the middle of a city soundtracked by Definitely Maybe and populated by Adidas Samba wearing casuals.

Rösler was born behind the Iron Curtain in Altenberg, East Germany in 1968 and began his career with 1. FC Lokomotiv Leipzig. Now, you hear a lot of stories about the difficulties that young lads have starting out in the game but things were a bit different in 1980s East Germany. Whilst in his early days at Leipzig, 18-year-old Rösler was interrogated by the Stasi who tried to force him into spying on any teammates seeking a less miserable life in the West. And what would Rösler get in return? The Stasi would ‘allow’ him to continue his football career unhindered. Thankfully for Uwe, his manager got wind of this and stepped in, rather bravely called the Stasi a bunch of “f***ing arseholes” and somehow managed to put a stop to their absolute shithousery. Years later, Uwe had his say on the matter: “my manager had been right all along, they were arseholes.”

With this situation in the background it is perhaps unsurprising that he only played three games for Lokomotiv before defecting across the city to the now defunct BSG Chemie Leipzig where he played 27 games, scoring six goals in his only season with the club. Just a quick aside, if you have any spare time and are interested in history’s impact on sport, the club’s entry on Wikipedia is absolutely fascinating. Rösler’s next move saw him really hit the goal trail when he knocked in 19 goals in 46 games in his solitary season with 1. FC Magdeburg before moving to Dynamo Dresden in 1990, after which a spell at 1. FC Nürnberg and a loan back to Dresden followed. Whilst Uwe was working at establishing himself in the game, a young American chap called David Hasselhoff was busying himself dancing the Berlin Wall to rubble, changing the world in the process. Five years after the wall fell and Knight Rider had fled the scene Uwe was packing his bags bound for Moss Side, Manchester. 

When you reflect on his achievements at Maine Road, the move may look obvious but actually on reflection Manchester City were taking a chance on Rösler. At the time of his transfer he had only scored 32 goals in 157 games and the influx of foreign players into English football was still very much in its infancy. In fact, Uwe was one of only three non-British or Irish registered players in the squad and of the other two, one was on loan and the other, Jamaican international Fitzroy Simpson, was born in Wiltshire. That said, Rösler’s time in Manchester has gone down in Mancunian folklore. He was top scorer and player of the year in his first season at the club and in total scored 64 goals in 176 games, enough to earn him a place the Manchester City ‘Hall of Fame’ and a place in the hearts of all Citizens - more on which soon. Rösler eventually moved on from City and returned to his native Germany where he played for, amongst other clubs, the fantastically named Tennis Borussia Berlin. He then returned to England with uneventful spells at Southampton and West Bromwich Albion before hopping back to Germany with Spielvereinigung Unterhaching (tremendous naming again), however it was during his time in Norway with his last professional club Lillestrøm that his life would change. 

On the pitch, things went fantastically well for Rösler where he scored ten goals in eleven games in his first season at the club. However, after scoring the winning goal in the opening game of the 2003/4 season the then 34 year old was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and given a week to live. What followed was months of intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy and bone marrow ­injections. Most people deal with these situations with the love and help of family and friends. However, what most people don’t also have in their corner is thousands of Mancunians. During a 2013 interview with The Mirror Rösler recounted how one day, whilst sat in a hospital bed recovering from a round of chemo, his phone rang - it was an old friend calling from the City of Manchester Stadium. An old friend and 46,000 people singing Rösler’s name. As Uwe said himself “with that kind of backing, how could I possibly fail?” As Rösler continued his recovery he was invited back to his adopted home as a VIP guest at a game and was introduced to the fans at half time where he again received a standing ovation. Rösler has described the bond he developed with the City fans as the "biggest achievement in my career" and to be fair it is easy to see why.

There is so much more to Rösler’s story that I don’t really have room for but needs telling so I’m going into list format:

• Having recovered from cancer he has carved out a successful management career including spells at Molde, Brentford, Wigan Athletic, Leeds United, Malmö and his current role at Fortuna Düsseldorf
• He has a Masters degree in Sporting Directorship
• He named his kids Colin (a professional footballer with NAC Breda) and Tony after Man City legends Colin Bell and Tony Book
• He got his passion for English football from listening to taped crowd noises because they couldn’t watch the matches in East Germany
• He scored the last ever goal at The Dell for Southampton, albeit in a friendly (the last competitive goal fittingly went to Matt le Tissier)
• His international career was rather limited, earning five caps for East Germany. This wasn’t down to a lack of talent but more owing to the political battle of East versus West and some young post-unification lad called Jürgen Klinsmann
• He has released an autobiography called Knocking Down Walls
• He signed off his international career by receiving a huge cash bonus because the East German football association had to get rid of all its currency as it was about to become obsolete

After learning about his story I can definitely say that if I was a Manchester City fan I’d still be strolling round with Rösler 28 on my back. In fact I might do it anyway. What a top bloke.