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Berlin (dpa) - Erwin Kostedde would not want to take part again, what he experienced as a black in football in Germany.
“Maybe it's gotten easier, I don't know,” the 74-year-old told the Tagesspiegel in an interview (Sunday).
“You hear other things too.
I do not understand that.
To me, a white person is a white person and a black person is a black person.
I don't prefer some of them and neither do I. "
Kostedde played his first international match against Malta in December 1974 - as the first black player in the German national team.
In total, however, he only came across three missions.
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“Maybe the burden was too great,” said the former professional from Kickers Offenbach, Hertha BSC and Borussia Dortmund, among others, in the interview: “Even before the first game in Malta, I got letters from people of color in Germany.
How proud they are of me. "
In the second game at London's Wembley Stadium in front of a hundred thousand spectators, he was over-motivated and with thoughts everywhere, “just not on the pitch.
I played like Santa Claus. "
The then national coach Helmut Schön also told him that he should answer no when he was asked by newspapers whether there was racism in Germany, confirmed Kostedde.
He contradicted a little.
"I don't want to pose as particularly brave, but I've already thought that if you have to keep quiet about how it really is in Germany, then you do without", reported Kostedde.
“I noticed at a young age that people would stop on the street and point their fingers at me.
In the summer I often didn't dare go into the sun because I was getting blacker and blacker », he said, looking back.
“I scrubbed myself with curd soap to get the paint off.
I also tried washing powder, wiping it wet on my arms and face.
So I went to sleep.
The next morning the skin was porous and damaged.
These are things that can hardly be told. "
Football was his only chance.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210411-99-159351 / 2
Details about Kostedde on dfb.de.