Biografia
He grew up in middle-class circumstances as the son of a butcher. Like his younger brother Dieter, he began his playing career at VfB Ulm. As a child, Hoeneß moved to the youth teams of TSG Ulm 1846 (today SSV Ulm 1846). At the age of fifteen he became captain of the DFB student team. In 1970 he moved to the professional squad of FC Bayern Munich together with Paul Breitner and Rainer Zobel. On the first Bundesliga match day, August 15, 1970, he made his Bundesliga debut in a 1-1 draw in Stuttgart, and he scored his first goal on November 28, 1970 (16th match day) in a 1-1 draw in Braunschweig. In the first year he was runner-up and DFB Cup winner. In 1971 he completed his school education with the Abitur at the Schubart-Gymnasium in Ulm. He later dropped out of his teaching degree in English and history because of his football career.
In the same year, 1971, Hoeneß was called up to the U-23 national team. He played his first international match on June 11, 1971 in Heilbronn. Hoeneß scored his first goal in an international match and the team won against Albania with 2-0 goals. In 1972 he took part in the Olympic Games. On November 21, 1973, he played for the U-23 in Warsaw for the second and last time. The match ended in a draw. Hoeneß became the star player of the league. His quick start made him a dangerous opponent. Hoeneß ran the 100 meters in 11.0 seconds. The strike duo Müller-Hoeneß scored 53 goals in the 1971/1972 and 1972/1973 seasons. In 1972, Hoeneß also became a regular player in the national team under national coach Helmut Schön, where he made his debut in March 1972 and became a member of the legendary Wembley team. In the same year he became European champion with the DFB team. Just ten days after the European Championship final, Hoeneß celebrated his first German championship with FC Bayern under coach Udo Lattek.
In the European Champions Cup in the 1973/74 season he scored two goals in the second leg against Dynamo Dresden and in the second final game against Atletico Madrid. Hoeneß took part in all seven World Cup games in 1974, scoring a penalty against Sweden and missing one against Poland. The Federal Republic of Germany won the tournament after a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the final in Munich and became world champions for the second time since 1954. He was seriously injured in the 1975 European Cup final against Leeds United. In the final of the 1976 European Championship, he missed his penalty in the penalty shootout against the ÈSSR, who then became European champions. After scoring 86 goals in 239 games for FC Bayern until 1978, he moved to 1.FC Nürnberg for the 1978/79 season, for whom he played eleven more times. However, due to irreparable knee damage, Hoeneß had to end his active career at the age of 27. The following year, in 1980, at the age of just 27, he was appointed the youngest manager in the league at FC Bayern Munich.
When he started work, FC Bayern achieved sales of twelve million marks with a debt of seven million marks. In his first year of work, Uli Hoeneß was already happy about winning the German championship in 1980. He was subsequently largely responsible for the economic rise of FC Bayern Munich. Hoeneß, who was inspired by professional merchandising in the USA in the 1970s, introduced the instrument, which was still largely unknown in Germany at the time, and brought the FC millions in additional income. In 1982 he was the only one of four passengers to survive the crash of a sports bike. In 1983, together with Werner Weiß, he founded the HoWe Wurstwaren KG sausage factory in Nuremberg. Under his leadership, FC Bayern became the most successful club in the history of football. Between 1980 and 2008, the club was German champion 16 times, DFB Cup winner nine times, League Cup winner six times and UEFA Cup winner (1996).
This means that almost all of the club's triumphs fall during his time in office. In 1999, Hoeneß became the first football manager to be named Manager of the Year. In 2006 he was awarded the Bavarian Sports Prize in the "High Performance Athlete Plus" category. In 2009 he was honored with the "Golden Sports Pyramid" and thus included in the "Hall of Fame" of German sports. In November 2009 he was honored with the "Bambi" in the "Economy" category. At the end of November 2009, Uli Hoeneß ended his role as manager at FC Bayern after more than 30 years. On November 27, 2009, he was appointed President of FC Bayern München e.V. at the annual general meeting and in March 2010 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of FC Bayern München AG. His successor was Christian Nerlinger, who took over as manager on December 1, 2009. His predecessor in the presidency, Franz Beckenbauer, was appointed honorary president.
On March 13, 2014, Uli Hoeneß was sentenced by the 5th criminal chamber of the Munich II Regional Court to a total prison sentence of three and a half years for tax evasion. On March 14th he resigned from his functions as President of FC Bayern Munich e. V. and as chairman of the supervisory board of FC Bayern München AG. At the same time, he declared that he did not want to appeal the verdict. After his early release from prison, he held both positions again from 2016 to 2019. Since he decided not to seek re-election, he has only been a simple member of the supervisory board.
