Sepp Herberger

Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 in Mannheim, German Empire – 28 April 1977 in Weinheim-Hohensachsen, West Germany) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West German national team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup – The Miracle of Bern. Previously he had also coached the Breslau Eleven, one of the greatest teams in German football history.

Herberger played three times for the German football team between 1921 and 1925 before becoming assistant to Dr. Otto Nerz in 1932. Herberger succeeded him as national coach after Germany's uninspired loss to Norway at the 1936 Olympics. After the war he had a short club spell with Eintracht Frankfurt before being recalled as national team coach in 1950. He remained national coach until 1964, when he was succeeded by Helmut Schön. He died of pneumonia in Mannheim aged 80.

Herberger joined the Nazi Party in 1933. His nomination to the Germany's Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 caused a lot of criticism because of his Nazi past.

Three of these sayings are quoted in the beginning of the 1998 film Run Lola Run. The first is at the very beginning of the film (Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel, "After the game is before the game"). Then after a series of intentionally confusing and seemingly innocuous statements and character introductions, a simple minded security guard utters the phrase "Der Ball ist rund und das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten.", which is a commonly used amalgamation of two separate famous quotes.

The 2003 film, The Miracle of Bern, following Herberger and his team's path to victory in the 1954 world cup, also features a number of these quotations including the amalgamation of two of the above, "The ball is round and the game lasts for 90 minutes" (Der Ball ist rund und das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten).

As a player

• South German Championship: 1925

As a manager

• FIFA World Cup: 1954

• Das Große Spiel (1942)