Twenty years ago, the Bundesliga breathed a sigh of relief. Finally there was one of those real guys making headlines on and off the pitch again. Ansgar Brinkmann was able to wallpaper his living room with his warnings - but also play brilliant football. His motto was program: "Long live the vice!"
"Whoever takes me will bring trouble into the house." It is exactly twenty years ago that Ansgar Brinkmann said this sentence. In the fall of 2002, the man they called the "white Brazilian" was on everyone's lips. A large sports magazine devoted a double page to him under the title "The lovable rebel". Finally there was someone who fell out of line in the Bundesliga and made headlines. True to Brinkmann's motto: "Long live vice, because whoever is only good is never missing anywhere." It's the line from a song by Udo Jürgens. It fits the "white Brazilian" like the famous fist in the eye.
In these autumn days twenty years ago, Brinkmann also said another sentence that has now become legendary: "I've received so many warnings in my career that I could wallpaper my living room with it." And in fact, Arminia Bielefeld had just had to send him two new ones back then. Allegedly, he and a friend had wanted to visit an ice rink at night in winter and had been surprised by a steward. The security man later claimed to have been physically assaulted. The matter ended up in court - and Arminia had to react.
Brinkmann received the second warning because he had traveled to the training camp despite the injury, celebrated his birthday extensively there and only returned to the team quarters late at night. Incidentally, the "white Brazilian" paid the fine of 3,000 euros shortly afterwards in small notes directly to his coach Benno Möhlmann.
But the truce between his coach and him did not last long. After a defeat, Brinkmann first folded his team-mates and then his coach in the dressing room. But the team finally resolved this dispute without penalty - because everyone saw that Brinkmann only wanted the best for the club and his argument - "You can't keep the class by shutting up" - could not be dismissed out of hand.
Shortly thereafter, before the away game on November 30th in Bochum, there was another high point in the internal relationship between Brinkmann and his coach. The "lovable rebel" had missed breakfast in the morning and is now hungry just before the game. And so Brinkmann went and was lucky. There was a French fries stand directly at the fairground on Castroper Strasse, within throwing distance of the Ruhr Stadium. Ansgar spontaneously got himself a portion and returned to the hotel.
Today he says about the action: "I was a free spirit. I ate red and white fries before a Bundesliga game. Which player does that? In the team meeting, first row, before the Bochum game, in front of Benno Möhlmann. At first he had it didn't dare to speak to me, then he screamed: 'Ansgar, are you crazy?' My response was, 'That's the gas for now!'"
And Benno Moehlmann? Today, after so many years, he says: "How should you react to that? I didn't have any opportunities for comparison because Ansgar was the only player who brought things like this. As a coach, you were constantly challenged with him. It never got boring with him." Arminia won the game 3-0 that day. Brinkmann played outstandingly. The problems shouldn't get any less in the following weeks.
But at the time, Bielefeld knew exactly who they had signed. After all, Brinkmann had already had a few stations with some crazy stories behind him at this point. And the story from 1996 at the latest should have sounded all the alarm bells. Because back then at FC Gütersloh, the following happened: The Gütersloh team had finally won again after a long time. One day before the planned Christmas party. Coach Hannes Linßen therefore asked his team not to celebrate the victory too excessively - there would still be enough opportunity for that one day later.
The players promised that too, but unfortunately the plan didn't quite work out. When the men around the white Brazilian got out of their taxi downtown, Ansgar Brinkmann jumped straight onto the roof of the car. From there it went over six more taxi roofs before he jumped back to the ground. Immediately, seven doors opened and out stepped six angry drivers. Only the man next to whom Brinkmann had landed smiled. He called over to the others: "It's just Ansgar. No problem!"
The white Brazilian still says that it would have been good for everyone involved if the taxi drivers had called the police at that point in the evening. Everything would have ended lightly and the next day everyone would have celebrated Christmas with full steam ahead. But this evening ended differently. The police report states verbatim that Ansgar and his teammates "completely reduced a road to 80 meters of rubble". In between, Brinkmann even had the glorious idea of jumping into the window of a furniture store. He had grown tired and had discovered a bed. Surprisingly, he only got tiny cuts on his body when he jumped through the pane. The journey could continue after a short break.
Ansgar Brinkmann looked almost happily in the eyes of the police officer who finally greeted the troop at the end of the street. With a trembling voice, the white Brazilian asked: "Sheriff. It's over, isn't it?!" And the policeman answered with the legendary words: "Ansgar, the game is over!" The evening ended here, but the career went on. In Bielefeld they still love their Ansgar today. On the one hand because, in addition to all the capers off the green pitch, he was also a fantastic footballer. And on the other hand, because he is this "lovable rebel" that you just have to like.
