Uli Henness is a functionary whose path in football as a player ended very early, and as a manager, he began. Now he is a venerable German gentleman, who nevertheless still drives the huge Munich “machine”, quarrels with the authorities and passionately cheers for “Bavaria”.
Uli Henness: biography and interesting facts from life
Ulrich Henness was born in the German city of Ulm in 1952. He was fond of football since childhood, so at the age of 7 his father sent him to the youth team of the same name “Ulm”. Thanks to the outstanding game, Henness was very quickly invited to the youth team of Germany, the colors of which he defended from 1968 to 1972.
Uli Heness spent almost his entire professional career as a player in Munich Bavaria, and got a position there after completing his speeches.
In 1982, Henness was the only survivor of a plane crash of a light private plane flying from Munich to Hanover. A well-known football functionary was found in the forest, bloodied and in a forgotten state. Later, Hennesses himself repeatedly noted that fate gave him a second chance.
A tall striker ended his football career in a modest Nuremberg. Henness managed to play 11 matches for the club, but the residents of the city of Nuremberg were more remembered for being the co-owner of the local meat processing plant, which operates to this day.
As a player
In 1970, the previously unknown eighteen-year-old footballer Uli Henness became a player in Munich Bavaria. A photo of a player of those years, by the way, can still be seen in the club museum of 26-time champions. He played in the position of an attacking midfielder or drawn forward.
For nine years in Bavaria, Henness spent more than three hundred matches, but was forced to end his career as a player at the age of 27 due to ongoing pain in his knee.
Also for four years, the footballer defended the colors of the German national team, in which he managed to hold 35 matches and sign five times at the opponents' goal.
As a manager
We must pay tribute to the leadership of Bavaria, which immediately found a position in the club for its legend. However, it is necessary to note the fact that in 1980 the Munichers were not as powerful a machine as they are at present. It was a club with a modest budget and solid debts, to which the champion title has not been submitted for five years.
Uli Henness spent at the helm of Bavaria for more than thirty years, became its president and turned the Munich team into a real grandeur of German and European football. During the reign of the functionary, the team won the national championship 16 times and twice - the Champions League. In 2016, after a three-year hiatus, Henness was again elected president of the club, receiving unanimous support.
Imprisonment
The three years outside the management of the team, the aforementioned, are not connected with the appearance of a candidate more worthy for the presidency, but with problems with the law that Henness began in 2014. The functionary was charged with tax evasion (quite common in the world of football, including the modern one).
However, unlike most modern football players and other football figures, Uli Henness did not deny his guilt and, in order to mitigate the punishment, agreed to an upright confession. The president of Bavaria was charged with evading 27 million euros and sentenced to three years in prison. In addition, he was removed from his post as president and member of the supervisory board, and also expelled from the German Football Hall of Fame. Henness was released ahead of schedule in 2016, after which he immediately returned to managing the football “empire” built by himself.