11: Bert Trautmann, Manchester City, A&BC Footballers 1960/61 Series 1

In the last round of fixtures for whatever the Nations League actually is Germany came to Wembley to play out one of international football’s most compelling fixtures. Back in 1966 England apparently did quite well against West Germany in the final of their home World Cup although the more cynical (or German) of observers might point out that Geoff Hurst’s second goal only stood due to the intervention of Azerbaijani linesman Tofiq Bahramov. Rather than being castigated for his controversial call, or forced to look at a little telly for five minutes while someone drew some colourful lines on the replay, the Azerbaijani FA renamed their national stadium after him following his death in 1993. Although the celebrated official stated in his memoirs that he believed the ball had very much crossed the line rumours abound that when asked in person why he had awarded the goal he had simply responded: “Stalingrad”.

The siege of the city now known as Volgograd during the Second World War lasted over five months of the winter of 1942 and 1943 and led to the deaths of nigh on two million people. Although the Soviet Red Army was ultimately successful in forcing the retreat of the Nazi German forces the brutality of the siege continues to live in the collective memory of the Russian people. The legacy of the Second World War still influences global politics and warfare and often rears its head whenever an opportunistic backbench MP wants to score some cheap Brexit based points or when England and Germany meet on the football pitch. Never mind the fact that Germany have won three European Championships and four World Cups there is always someone among the Three Lions’ support who feels the need to bring up those two World Wars by way of comparison as if the deaths of approximately eighty million people make up for the penalty performances of Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce and Gareth Southgate.

Such hostility towards Germany directly after the Second World War is more understandable and it is not overly surprising that when a decorated former Luftwaffe officer moved to Manchester City in 1949 his arrival at Maine Road was met with considerable opposition. Season ticket holders threatened to demand refunds and away supporters regularly called him “Kraut” and “Nazi” in his initial performances. When you consider he had been plucked from the relative obscurity of the Liverpool County Combination after just one season for St Helen’s Town to replace the recently retired City legend Frank Swift it was a daunting situation to enter into. Time would show, however, that such challenges were of little consequence to Bert Trautmann.

Trautmann’s first encounter with Nazism came when he joined the Jungvolk branch of the newly formed Hitler Youth in August 1933. The Nazis’ fascination with physical exertion attracted the ten year old more than his local YMCA where he had impressed in both football and handball and within a year he had received a certificate of excellence from the ageing German President Paul von Hindenburg following his success in several athletics contests. After training as a mechanic he joined the Luftwaffe at the age of eighteen and rose through the ranks as a paratrooper engaged in operations in Poland, Ukraine and France where he was both awarded the Iron Cross and sentenced to three months in military prison for playing a practical joke on a superior officer. In the closing stages of the Second World War he attempted to make his way home to Bremen avoiding troops from both sides in fear of execution before he was captured in Belgium by British forces in 1945. He was transferred to Britain and initially classed as a category ‘C’ prisoner, and thus considered a committed Nazi, but eventually saw his status downgraded and he was moved to the outskirts of Liverpool where he worked on local farms until 1948. It was during this time his goalkeeping talents became apparent as his POW Camp took on local amateur sides.

Despite the initial furore surrounding his transfer to Manchester City his club captain Eric Westwood, a Normandy veteran, stated “there’s no war in this dressing room” and this public show of support allowed Trautmann to establish himself in the first team. Further backing came from Manchester’s community rabbi, Alexander Altmann, and his solid performances in goal for a struggling side saw protests evaporate. Although City were relegated in his first campaign they bounced straight back up to the First Division and Trautmann missed only five of his side’s following 250 games as he came to be regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the country. He had refused an offer of repatriation in 1948 but by 1952 German side Schalke 04 expressed an interest in bringing Trautmann back home for a £1,000 fee. City responded that he was worth at least twenty times that and his accurate long throws helped start attacks for manager Les McDowall’s innovative approach based around deep-lying forward Don Revie. They reached the 1955 FA Cup final, where Trautmann became the first German to play in the Wembley showpiece, but fell to a 3-1 defeat against Newcastle United.

City were back under the shadow of the Twin Towers just a year later this time to face Birmingham City. They had also finished fourth in the First Division and Trautmann became the first goalkeeper to win the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award (only Pat Jennings, Gordon Banks and Neville Southall have followed him). If there had been any doubts about this accolade they were blown out of the water by the end of the 1956 FA Cup Final. Both sides traded goals in the first half before City raced into a 3-1 lead midway through the second period. Birmingham upped the ante to try and force a replay and Trautmann pulled off a string of excellent saves. With fifteen minutes left he dived for the ball only to have Birmingham’s Peter Murphy clatter into his neck. Trautmann briefly lost consciousness but, in an age before substitutes, recovered to play the remainder of the game and once again threw himself at Murphy’s feet to make a vital save in order to secure City the trophy. Never one to shy from an awkward outburst the late Prince Philip commented on the goalkeeper’s crooked neck as he handed him his winner’s medal. Trautmann managed to get through the post-match banquet despite an inability to move his head and was told by a doctor the following day he merely had a crick in his neck. He sought a second opinion back in Manchester where it was revealed he had dislocated five vertebrae one of which was cracked. A wedged third vertebra had prevented further damage and had potentially saved Trautmann’s life.

It was over six months before Bert Trautmann played again for Manchester City’s reserves and he managed to return to the first team later in the 1956/57 season although his confidence was noticeably damaged. He struggled for form in the following campaign as City managed to both score and concede a century of goals with Trautmann shipping eight against Leicester City. However, he was a mainstay in the first team for the next four seasons and his testimonial in 1964 was attended by over 50,000 fans. A short spell at Wellington Town in the Southern League brought his career to a close and he seamlessly moved into management with Stockport County before returning to Germany in 1967 where he eventually took on a role as a development worker to countries without established football structures. Over the next sixteen years he helped to manage the national sides of Myanmar, Tanzania, Liberia, Pakistan and Yemen before moving to retirement in Spain in 1988.

Bert Trautmann passed away in 2013 at the age of 89. Nine years earlier he was awarded an OBE at the British Embassy in Berlin and the following night met the late Queen Elizabeth II at a concert of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The monarch apparently greeted him “Ah, Herr Trautmann, I remember you. Have you still got that pain in your neck?” It is understandable that his heroics in the 1956 FA Cup Final are what he is best remembered for but the quiet, dignified work he did to ease Anglo-German relations following the Second World War meant that he has been fondly remembered in both countries. Both Gordon Banks and Bob Wilson stated Trautmann influenced their goalkeeping but perhaps the greatest accolade came from the only shot stopper to ever win the Ballon d’Or: “There have only ever been two world-class goalkeepers. One was Lev Yashin, the other was the German boy who played in Manchester – Trautmann.”