Sepp Maier celebrates a big birthday. © dpa / Andreas Gebert

Sepp Maier turns 80: “We lived Mia san mia”

Sun, beach, sea – and golf. Sepp Maier spends his 80th birthday in a relaxed manner, thousands of kilometers away from the turbulence at his favorite club, FC Bayern Munich. The German goalkeeper legend is enjoying his special day with his wife Monika in Mauritius, the island state in the Indian Ocean.

28. February 2024

From: dpa

On Wednesday (February 28.2th) he will be on telephone duty, jokes Maier at the preliminary meeting in his house in Hohenlinden outside Munich, expecting numerous calls. The former football joker and world champion goalkeeper from 1974 has long since given up the habit of celebrating birthdays, even round ones. “We don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter either, we don’t need any presents,” he explains. He treats himself to a birthday in paradise.

As a professional footballer, he traveled all over the world. “But what did we see? Airport, stadium, hotel.” Now things are different. The Maiers like to be on the go. Included in the Mauritius trip is the “Sepp Maier Golf Trophy”, an annual golf trip with him as the driving force. His handicap is 4,9. “Of course I’m still a good guy,” he says with a laugh.

A Bavarian remains a Bavarian

As a professional footballer, he was not drawn to the big wide world despite offers from Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Boca Juniors (Argentina) and, at the end of his career, Cosmos New York. “A Bavarian has his homeland that cannot be transplanted.” Besides, those were different times. “Today the players go where there is the most money.” But Maier doesn’t want to blame them. “They would be stupid if they didn’t take it.” Football has also brought him wealth alongside fame, albeit in a different dimension. “We also earned well back then. A normal worker earned perhaps 1000 marks. And we had 8000 or 9000 marks,” explains Maier.

Sepp Maier in action. © AFP / STAFF

Conversations with him are always humorous. And of course it's always about football. Although he has gained distance with age, as he says, after 17 professional years at FC Bayern and two decades as a goalkeeping coach in Munich and the DFB. Maier also has strong opinions as a football retiree. “We lived the mia san mia,” he says to the famous Bayern generation of players around Franz Beckenbauer, “Katsche” Schwarzenbeck, Gerd Müller, “Bulle” Roth and himself. Today the players couldn’t even pronounce “Mia san mia” in Bavarian. “And they don’t even know what’s behind it,” says Maier about the club’s leitmotif. The special Bayern DNA is often just a brand slogan.

Maier rarely goes to the Allianz Arena anymore. “I will certainly still follow FC Bayern after I have been at the club for 50 years as a player and as a goalkeeping coach,” he says. And of course he wants his Bayern to play well and win. “But I'm not grumpy for a day because FC Bayern lost.” That's why his world won't collapse if, for once, another club, namely Bayer Leverkusen, becomes German champion this season. “Well, then FC Bayern won’t win a title,” says Maier.

Maier mourns Beckenbauer and Brehme

He looks at the current football business from a distance. The viewer Maier doesn't need all the "chatter" on television before and after the games on the couch at home. Shaking his head, he observes that today's Bayern stars like Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller (have to) take a turn even after crushing defeats because that's what the fans expect. “When we lost 0-5, we no longer went into the corner, but into the dressing room and were ashamed. Today the players run and clap,” says Müller. He just can't understand something like that.

Franz Beckenbauer (left) was a long-time companion of Sepp Maier. © AFP / STAFF, -

The year started with sad news for him. First Franz Beckenbauer died, then the day before his trip to Mauritius Andreas Brehme, the 1990 World Cup final hero. At that time, Maier was responsible for the goalkeepers in DFB team boss Beckenbauer's coaching team. “63 years is not an age,” says Maier quietly to Brehme, who died far too early.

“Franz and I always got along really well.” Sepp Maier on Franz Beckenbauer

He was also shocked by Beckenbauer's death, which was less surprising. “I knew Franz for 65 years. Franz was 14, I was 15, and we met when we were young,” says Maier. It was the beginning of a shared football success story and a friendship. “We experienced all the successes with FC Bayern, right from the start,” recalls Maier, recalling the promotion to the Bundesliga, the numerous national and international titles and the glorious times as a national player. “Of course you grow together there. That brings us together. Franz and I always got along really well.”

Maier, Beckenbauer, MülIer – that was the famous Bavarian axis that also made Germany happy. This summer marks the 50th anniversary of winning the home World Cup title in 1974 with a 2-1 win in the final against the Netherlands in Munich's Olympic Stadium. It was “the most beautiful moment” of Maier’s career, which he had to end after a serious traffic accident in 1979 at the age of 35. “Who will be world champion? How many million footballers are there in the world? And everyone wants to become world champion,” says Maier. Beckenbauer became world champion as a player (1974) and team manager (1990). Maier became world champion as a goalkeeper (1974) and goalkeeping coach (1990). The friends united in success.

Maier criticizes the national team

Will you win the European Championship in your own country 50 years after the 1974 World Cup home win? “Oh, that will be very difficult,” says Maier, referring to the struggling national team. What is missing is a well-coordinated team with a clear hierarchy. “It can’t be the case that you try out over 40 players in one year. No team can grow together. I must have a tribe. Anyone who can run straight is a national player. As a coach, you have to have players you rely on,” is Maier’s description of the current situation.

“I hope that they go very far in their own country. I also begrudge them the European championship title. Because after 28 years it’s about time again,” he says anyway. In 1996, at the last German European Championship triumph in England, he was still there as a goalkeeping coach. And if he still held this position, it would also be clear who would be in the DFB goal in the opening game of the European Championship against Scotland on June 14th in Munich. “Just the new one. He was injured for a long time after his skiing accident. But now he’s fit again.” And for Maier “still the best”.