Bernd Schuster, Ice (hockey) and Fire

[Unnamed Trialist]

A new documentary has come out on Movistar on German star Bernd Schuster, a technical and very physical mid, one of a handful of players who played for Barça, Real Madrid and Atlético. 

Schuster was always a bit odd, he was a rebel with the German federation, he quit in conflict with them when he was 24. He won the 1980 Eurocup with them and was on the best XI, but felt they didn't support him. A top player but did his own thing.

One of the subplots is his passion for ice hockey, when he retired he played veteran tournaments, and he still apparently plays, he skates very smoothly and says it's his "favourite sport". 

Another cool detail in the documentary is that when he started playing veterans with the best team in the Madrid area, Majadahonda, a guy helping run the team was a Canadian-Spanish journalist, Moises Molina. Born in Vancouver in 1967 Moi as they call him, comments NFL and hockey, mostly, he returned to Spain in his teens but is a Canucks fan, very knowledgeable about N American sports (guy in the middle, also saw that his daughter is a senior playing hockey in NCAA):

[Unnamed Trialist]

Started watching this today. He spent winters in Augsburg playing hockey on a pond and they'd switch to soccer in March. He got scouted and he and some buddies went to the academy and dropped hockey.

Will try to watch the rest after the holidays.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Finished this today, so I'll summarize some of his odd conflicts and personality twists.

Was signed by Koln as a teen, but did not get along with the coach, who one day made some comment to the players that he'd sing them a song if they performed well, and Schuster went back to training with a guitar and gave it to him in the dressing room. 

So they let him go cheap to Barcelona, stayed 8 years. Even though he was with Maradona at Barça, he only won a league and a couple cups, a poor result. He was loved by fans, also because he had a famous incident giving the Spanish version of the finger to Real Madrid after scoring in a cup final (what is called a "corte de manga".)

While at Barça the club refused to let him go with Germany to a friendly, as they had a cup match the next day; he went anyways, they won the friendly, and then the manager demanded all players go party afterwards into the wee hours. Schuster did not go and returned early to play for Barça the next day. So both his club and Germany were angry with him, and he was irritated that Germany would not appreciate the effort he'd made. After this misunderstanding he retired from the German national team age 24. 

His stint ended after Barça made the European Cup final vs. Steaua Bucharest, played in Sevilla in 1986. Though far superior and with no Steaua fans, FCB was taken into extra periods, and then coach Terry Venables subbed out Schuster a few minutes before the penalty round, when he was usually the main penalty taker. So he left the field, changed, left the stadium, and grabbed a cab, the cabbie listening to the match was shocked to see him, he returned to the team hotel and watched Barça lose on penalties on his tv. 

He went to Madrid, won a league, played well, they announced after two seasons they did not want him anymore--so he made a deal with the father of Miguel Angel Gil, current Atlético de Madrid president, and went there. Screwed up a league they had won in the final fixtures. Always to a main rival of the previous team. Ended at Bayer Leverkusen, where he also could not win (maybe this year they'll get their first Bundesliga.)

After retiring back in Germany he got his first coaching job for Xerex (Jerez), Spain, then promoted up to 2nd. The president tricked him, of sorts, because after signing he was told he had to help find the team a training ground and a stadium to play in. The mayor of Jerez was the former club president, resented the new one having promoted the team into 2nd tier, and did not let them play at home. So they went to a stadium 30km away in Sanlucar, where Canada women played Argentina in 2022.

Schuster ended up coaching Getafe into a European spot, and was at Real Madrid and won a league. Then, in Guardiola's first year at Barcelona, before a match in Camp Nou in 2008, he made a famous statement saying Madrid could not win, had no chance, could only aspire to do decently. This upset Madrid fans so much they fired him, though others saw it clearly as a strategy (Guardiola did a long press conference analyzing it). It was around this time he began playing veterans hockey again, in Madrid, often getting up for 5am ice time. What I did not know is that Schuster commented hockey as a guest with Movistar, via this Canadian-born Moises Molino I mentioned above, did the allstars, or the odd playoff match...)

Schuster also coached Besiktas, Shaktar Donetsk, in China, and only stopped in 2019.

Edited April 2 by Unnamed Trialist