Trautmann's Journey

An astounding story of war and football - the first biography of Manchester City goalkeeper and former Hitler Youth star Bert Trautmann

He was the best goalkeeper I ever played against.' Bobby Charlton Every football fan knows the legend of Bert Trautmann. Fifteen minutes from the end of the 1956 FA Cup Final, Trautmann – the goalkeeper for Manchester City – falls spectacularly mid-tackle. He continues to play on to the end of the game, ensuring Manchester City win the cup. An X-ray later reveals a broken neck. But there is more to this legend than a plucky goalkeeper. Bert Trautmann was born Bernhardt Trautmann in Germany in 1923. Brought up in a country already in the grip of National Socialism, he joined the Hitler Youth at the age of ten and went to fight for the Vaterland when he was seventeen. Despite enduring inconceivable hardships in the name of war, Trautmann continued to believe wholeheartedly in the cause. Until one day he stumbled into enemy territory to be greeted by the words, ‘Fancy a cup of tea, Fritz?’ What follows is an extraordinary story of transformation. Bernhardt – a Nazi living in a POW camp in Cheshire – becomes Bert. From an amateur footballer working on a bomb disposal unit in Liverpool, to celebrated Manchester City goalkeeper adored by thousands, Catrine Clay charts Trautmann’s conversion from Hitler Youth star to all-England football hero, mirroring Europe’s own journey through the horrors of war to a fragile post-war peace.

Author Profile

Catrine Clay has worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries, mainly for the History Unit. She has written three previous books. Her most recent book, King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins who Led the World to War, was published in 2007 to high acclaim (‘Proof that good storytelling is a true art,’ Caroline Moorehead, Spectator, ‘Weird and wonderful,’ Hilary Spurling, Observer). She is married with three children, and lives in London.

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