"It was the 27th September 2006. "This day will Burkhard Ziese (65) never forget in his life.
It was the day on which the soccer-trained teachers, the national teams around the world, was snatched by four men from the Stadium of Blantrye in Malawi and brutally beaten.
Two and a half years later, this event is as present as ever. Burkhard Ziese is located in the ward of a psychiatric hospital near Bonn.
It is the story of a football coach from the Rhineland, who spent four decades in the international, national coach of Ghana, Thailand, Pakistan, Zambia and Bermuda was - which is just a small selection. Burkhard Ziese was in 109 countries. Malawi in southeastern Africa, the last stop could have been his career. It was hell.
Bruises on the body, blood in urine, constant visits to the doctor - that started it all. Ziese said: "The Secretary General of the Football Association has ensured that these men beat me out of the stadium and get ready." Officials and coaches, it is clear enough, had quarreled over contract issues.
A few weeks remained Ziese and his wife Barbara (64) still in Malawi. They barricaded their house at night was less than two pillows a pistol. "I learned what fear means," Ziese said.
The couple moved back to Germany, to the old home after Ruppichteroth-Winterscheid in Bergische. And then began the real problems.
Sunday EXPRESS visit to Room 9 of the psychiatric clinic. Burkhard Ziese is sitting at a light wood table. He is willing to talk about his situation. Even though he was not easy. "At first it was only the eyes. I could hardly see, in the end it was 5.25 diopters. Then the ears, I now hear is very, very bad. And now, "Ziese said," now I'm having problems with his head. "
"Problems with the head." So he calls it. Exactly what he has, can or will not say. But so far, at least: "I am more and more often simply confused." Ziese repeats the same phrases again and again, mixed ideas, exchanged annual figures within a few seconds.
For the second time the football globe-trotter is under treatment, he soon will be laid. "I give up hope, that I feel well again."
Burkhard Ziese says he still get 120,000 euros salary from Malawi, in December last year would have been at least agreed to 43,000 euros. "I got up today anyway just 10,000."
But for Ziese money is not nearly so important. His dream is to travel again for FIFA around the earth as a coach or play in big stadiums against big teams. With the angry outsider favorites.
But all that seems far away. "My wife wants to go to the experiences in Malawi, not abroad, and besides, she too is sick. Just this morning she was again operated on. "" Actually, "Ziese said," I can not do anything at the moment, being out here. "
