In March 2019, Eintracht Frankfurt’s now deceased legend Bernd Nickel spoke about hard-hitting free kicks and his corner secret in an interview with kicker. An excerpt.
You were the type of goal-scoring midfielder with a lot of power. Do you see a worthy successor or does this type of player no longer exist?
The classic playmakers hardly exist anymore. I like to see James. He sometimes plays passes that make me think: I would have tried that in the past. When he arrives, I’m happy. Max Kruse has a great eye and almost never loses the ball. And Luca Waldschmidt, with his great left foot and Hessian origins, I’d bring back to Frankfurt from Freiburg tomorrow if I could.
You’ve always taken full risks. Doctor Hammer, as Hans Tilkowski christened you, also hit the nail on the side once in a while.
What’s the point if I lift the ball over the wall for a free kick and the goalkeeper catches it easily? That’s when the first shot came in at neck height, so that the head would be pulled away for the second free kick. You had to come up with something.
Mourning for Bernd Nickel: An obituary for “Dr. Hammer “
Did the other players complain about the scattering?
Yes, it happened. At Schalke, Branko Oblak stood on the edge of the penalty area to block my corners. Three times I hit him on the thigh or hip, and Grabi (Jürgen Grabowski, editor’s note) was already saying “He’s out of his mind out there”. But I told a photographer inside: “And if I stand here until a quarter past five: I’ll keep shooting until Oblak goes over.” The fourth corner ended up with Holz (Bernd Hölzenbein, editor’s note), who scored to make it 1:2 and we still won in the end.
In the Waldstadion, you managed the feat of scoring directly into the opponent’s goal from each of the four corners. What was the secret?
I’ve always practised putting the balls in with full risk. Against Düsseldorf there was also a bit of luck, against Kaiserslautern and Ronnie Hellström the wind helped me.
“Sometimes the way was too far for me, why should I delay the game? “
BERND NICKEL
Wasn’t there a capable right-footer in the team then?
That’s what happened over time. I didn’t shoot all of them either. Sometimes the way was too far for me, why should I delay the game?
One of your corner goals was against Sepp Maier and Bayern, against whom you always liked to score. Was that because the bonuses were tied to the number of spectators at times and the stadium was always full against Munich?
(laughs) No. Bayern suited us because they wanted to play football. When we went to Oberhausen or Duisburg afterwards, we also got to know the other side, you couldn’t shine there.
Was the most important goal nevertheless the one in May 1971, the overhead kick against Offenbach to stay in the league?
I had already agreed everything with Robert Schwan and Udo Lattek and would have switched to Bayern if they had been relegated. It was definitely the most important goal for Eintracht. And otherwise the Bundesliga scandal probably wouldn’t have been uncovered.
Offenbach president Horst-Gregorio Canellas presented the tape recordings of the bribes afterwards.
I didn’t notice anything about it at the time, I was a young player after all.
You never got a real chance in the national team. Were you just too quiet for that?
Helmut Schön said that I still had to become more consistent, although I had already scored many goals. And Günter Netzer and Wolfgang Overath were always set. Today, I would perhaps put up a bit more of a fight. I was too quiet then, and I lacked a lobby.
But you played for a long time in the amateur national team, also at the 1972 Olympics.
We weren’t taken seriously by the track and field athletes, we didn’t feel completely at home in the Olympic village.
You saw the assassination at close quarters.
Uli Hoeneß and I watched the departure of the bus with the Israeli hostages from 15 metres away. That was totally dangerous, I would never do that again.
