Eduard Geyer turns 80 – an original who enriched football
Sun 06.10.24 | 2:26 p.m. | By Antonia Hennigs and Shea Westhoff
Image: imago/Robert Michael
Eduard “Ede” Geyer – the coaching icon is 80 years old. His voice could never be ignored. He turns 80 on Monday, and it’s not just his unfiltered sayings that will never be forgotten. By Antonia Hennigs and Shea Westhoff
Just a reminder of what a time it was when Ede Geyer led the then provincial club Energie Cottbus into the Bundesliga: At that time, football was increasingly influenced by the Assauers, Calmunds and Hoeneßen of the business, all from the West, of course. Little was said about football in the East.
And then, in 2000, “Ede Gnadenlos” pushed his provincial club from Lusatia into the league. It was uncomfortable football, but successful. “If someone wants to stretch, they should go to Denmark. I run, so no one can talk,” said Geyer, describing his training sessions. It is precisely these stories that serve as a pleasant reminder to disgruntled football romantics in the East and the West that hard work and passion can pay off. And that’s exactly what Eduard Geyer, who turns 80 on Monday, stood and stands for.
Successful player and coach
To mark the occasion, a TV documentary by MDR and rbb about his life will be shown on Sunday at 10:20 p.m. on rbb television (see info box). Sure: a review of his life is full and full of downfalls.
The successes with Energie Cottbus are an impressive chapter, but of course only one of many in Geyer’s vita. In 1989 he led Dynamo Dresden to the championship in the GDR and also to the European Cup semi-finals. As a player, he was active for the Saxons from 1968 to 1975, during which time he won two league titles with the team.
Fall of the Berlin Wall, missed World Cup in Italy
He was successful as a GDR selection coach and wanted to go to the World Cup in Italy with the team around Matthias Sammer, Ulf Kirsten and Thomas Doll. But just a few days before the decisive qualifying game against Austria, the wall fell.
Under the impression of the beginning of upheaval, Geyer’s team went down 3-0 and missed the World Cup. Geyer repeatedly said, probably only half in jest, that the Wall had been opened a few weeks too early.
Under Geyer, Energie Cottbus creates a sensation
With the reunification and the merger of the GDR league and the Bundesliga, Geyer has to start from the beginning. In the summer of 1994, the then 50-year-old took over Energie Cottbus – and an incomparable success story began: entry into the DFB Cup final in 1997, promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga, and then, in the spring of 2000, one of the biggest sensations in German football, promotion to the first league.
The Bundesliga is quickly getting used to the names of original footballers like Tomislav Piplica, Vasile Miriuta and Franklin. Under Geyer they achieved another sensation: staying out of the league on the last match day.
Shadows of the past
However, Geyer couldn’t get rid of his past as a Stasi spy. As a player at Dynamo Dresden, he was blackmailed into working for state security. It’s like “a flaw that you would actually like to erase from your life,” is how he describes it in the documentary. In 2018, after protests from former Dynamo teammates, he resigned as an honorary player for today’s third division team.
He received a few offers from first division teams in the West after 1990 – including from Hertha BSC, as he says in the film – but he also had reservations about him, the “GDR coach”.
Ede Geyer polarized the Federal Republic, but no one would doubt that he created a football legacy. In Cottbus they set up a monument to their Ede for his life’s work. The “Plastic Ede” was unveiled in his honor last year in the Cottbus stadium.
Broadcast: rbb, October 6th, 2024, 10:20 p.m.: “I, Ede”
Contribution by Antonia Hennigs and Shea Westhoff
