Because this is light entertainment I stuck with it, no great effort involved. Apart from sycophants reading effusive gushings about the object of their own adulation and adoration, hagiography does not make for engaging reading. Not that in this biography of the former German soccer striker, Jürgen Klinsmann, much else is to be expected from a publishing outfit named ‘Klinsmedia.’ The writing is the sort of tosh a reader might expect to come across in a narcissist’s autobiography. Hans Blickensdorfer was simply doing a PR job for Klinsmann. The praise for the 1990 World Cup winner medallist that endlessly erupts from the pages would normally be enough to make the reader cast it aside. But the ‘dive bomber’ was such a flamboyant and interesting character that his biographer does not manage to destroy him through endless surges of flattery.
Far from dislikeable, Klinsmann was always a great forward and stands out from many German international and club sides. In addition to his World Cup winner’s medal he captained the 1996 German team that won the Euro final. He also found himself voted English footballer of the Year by the Footballer Writers Association.
When he arrived in England foreign players in the British game were not the regular feature they are today. Bert Trautmann, the Manchester City goalkeeper who once played an FA Cup Final with a broken neck, made his name between the sticks. After him there was radio silence. Klinsmann was not the rehabilitated former POW but the consummate mercenary. Yet the double hurdle that this, glued to his reputation for diving, posed was easily cleared by a goal scoring prowess which made him such a sensation with the Spurs fans during his first spell with the club.
In this account the German star only soars but never dives: he just falls more than most and then only due to his style of play. Flannel that would be easier to put up with were Klinsmann not to share his biographer’s view, even going as far in one interview with a British newspaper to claim he fails to understand why anyone could accuse him of diving.
Everybody else in the world of soccer was after money but not Klinsmann: he was only in pursuit of knowledge and experience. The author’s strategy is to promote him while relegating rival talents like Maradona, even when Klinsmann is effusive in his praise of them, referring to the Argentine as the greatest player on the planet.
Although the blurb claims that Blickensdorfer saw the neon lights of the Klinsmann era 15 years before the book was written in 1998 he seemed considerably less prophetic when it came to management potential: Klinsmann had no interest and would in all likelihood never be coach. Now he has brought two national teams to the finals of the World Cup and was even head hunted by Alan Sugar to take over the reins at Spurs in the wake of the Ossie Ardilles departure.
Nothing is really revealed of the tension between Klinsmann and former German captain and inveterate backstabber Lothar Matthaus which would probably have made for some sort of titillation. Instead it is mentioned in passing with just enough there to allow Matthaus to emerge culpable.
Overall, the most interesting part of the book was not about Klinsmann but the post World War 2 plot devised by Lawrenti Beria, the feared Soviet Secret police chief, to have Dynamo Moscow defeat Arsenal as a means to promote Soviet PR. George Orwell would later pronounce the endeavour a debacle.
For the most part this is the sort of book that nothing other than pub quiz trivia is learned from. The author wants you to absorb something rather than actually know it. Readable for sure but hardly believable.
Hans Blickensdorfer, 1998. Jurgen Klinsmann. Klinsmedia: ISBN: 0-9528635-0-2
I don't know much about football and even less about books. But even I know Kilnsmann is the coach of the USA footy team and today is 4th July..
ReplyDeleteMrs McIntyre happy 4th July
Frankie,
ReplyDeleteshe says thanks for that