Sepp Maier, the Cat From Anzing
Between August 1966 and June 1979, Sepp Maier played 442 consecutive Bundesliga matches for Bayern Munich. Across those 13 years he did not miss a league match. In the same stretch he won three straight European Cups and, in 1974, the World Cup in his home city. Maier ranks No. 13 on this list.
Josef Dieter Maier was born in Metten, Bavaria, on Feb. 28, 1944. Wikipedia lists his height as 1.85 meters, about 6 feet 1 inch. He grew up playing for TSV Haar, east of Munich, and joined Bayern's youth teams as a teenager. He was nicknamed "Die Katze von Anzing," the Cat from Anzing, for his reflexes, agility and speed.
Bayern's climb
Bayern was not in the Bundesliga when it began in 1963. The Bundesliga's own history of Maier says he became Bayern's No. 1 in the second-tier Regionalliga in 1963-64, in a team that also had two young local players named Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller. Bayern won promotion in 1965 and stayed in the top division.
Maier stayed with Bayern for his whole career. Bayern won the Bundesliga four times with him in goal, in 1969, 1972, 1973 and 1974. It won the DFB-Pokal four times. In 1967 it beat Rangers in extra time to win the European Cup Winners' Cup.
Then came three European Cups in a row. Bayern beat Atlético Madrid in a replay in 1974, Leeds United in 1975 and Saint-Étienne in 1976. Across those three finals and the 1974 replay, plus the 1967 Cup Winners' Cup final, Maier conceded one goal.
The appearance streak
The 442-match streak is still a German record. The Bundesliga says that within that run he did not miss a single minute between April 1972 and June 1979, a stretch of 245 matches. He played 473 Bundesliga matches in all and kept 137 clean sheets. Counting every competition, he played 709 matches for Bayern. That was the club record until Thomas Müller passed it in 2024.
He was named German Footballer of the Year in 1975, 1977 and 1978.
The 1974 World Cup
Maier went to four World Cups. In 1966 in England he was the backup to Hans Tilkowski and did not play. In 1970 in Mexico he was the starter and played every match except the third-place game, including the 4-3 semifinal loss to Italy after extra time. He won the 1972 European Championship as West Germany's starter.
The 1974 World Cup was played in West Germany, and the final was in Munich on July 7 against Johan Cruyff's Netherlands. Johan Neeskens scored a penalty in the second minute, before West Germany had touched the ball. Paul Breitner equalized with a penalty, and Gerd Müller scored before halftime. West Germany won 2-1. Maier was named to the tournament's all-star team.
Two years later West Germany reached the Euro 76 final and lost to Czechoslovakia on penalties. The last kick was Antonín Panenka's chipped penalty, the original Panenka. At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, West Germany went out in the second round. Maier finished with 95 caps. The Bundesliga notes that it stayed the record for a German goalkeeper for about four decades, until Manuel Neuer passed it.
The accident
On July 14, 1979, Maier crashed his car on a wet road. The hospital he was taken to first diagnosed only broken ribs. Uli Hoeneß, his former teammate and Bayern's new general manager, got the club doctor involved, and Maier was moved to a Munich hospital. Doctors there found a ruptured lung, a displaced liver and a torn diaphragm. Emergency surgery saved his life. He tried to train again in November 1979, then retired at 35 without playing another match.
The gloves
Bundesliga.com describes Maier as one of the first goalkeepers to wear the oversized gloves that are now normal, and says he helped develop soft-grip goalkeeper gloves. The Athletic reported that latex-palm gloves caught on quickly after the 1974 World Cup. The longer story is in the complete history of goalkeeper gloves.
The coach
Maier coached Germany's goalkeepers from 1988 to 2004 and Bayern's goalkeepers from 1994 to 2008. He worked with Oliver Kahn at both. In October 2004 Germany coach Jürgen Klinsmann ended Maier's national team job after Maier publicly backed Kahn over Jens Lehmann for the starting spot. Andreas Köpke replaced him. Maier kept coaching at Bayern until 2008.
He was also known for his humor and for the long shorts he wore in goal. He once said a goalkeeper should give off a sense of calm without falling asleep while doing it.
The palm he helped create
Maier played in the years when goalkeeper gloves began to carry soft, grippy palms. A modern goalkeeper palm is foam latex, and that palm is the catch surface. Moisture on that foam activates grip by sealing the micro-pores. Water fills the pores, blocks air through the backside, and the foam sucks onto the ball. Sweat is not clean water. When the moisture evaporates, salt from sweat stays in the pores and keeps drawing the natural moisture out of the latex. Dirt packs in with the salt. The palm can still look whole while the ball slides off it. Why those pores create suction is in how latex foam grips the ball.
People hear the word balm and think of lip balm. KEEPER BALM is a compound of organic, natural ingredients that is safer than most lip balms, and it was made for grip on the foam palms of goalkeeper gloves. KEEPER BALM is a compound of humectants. Those humectants keep the natural moisture in the latex, and they restore the natural moisture to latex that has dried out. Restoring that moisture restores the pliability that is already in foam latex. The difference between this grip product and a cream for skin is in what KEEPER BALM is.
If the foam is still on the palm, wash the gloves, let them air-dry, and apply KEEPER BALM. Wash the dirt and the salt out with a lukewarm rinse, and squeeze the palms gently. Do not dunk the gloves. A soak leaves grit and water in the foam. That packs the pores instead of emptying them. Air-dry the pair away from a radiator, a dryer, and a hot car. Then apply a thin layer of KEEPER BALM to the clean, dry palms. The steps are in how to care for goalkeeper gloves. The same order, for foam that has dried out, is in how to restore grip on dried goalkeeper gloves.
KEEPER BALM is for foam palms that can still take grip maintenance. If a goalkeeper cannot use KEEPER BALM because of the condition of their glove palms, then Glove Glu is an option. Replace the pair when that is the right call.
Pros use it too, and KEEPER BALM keeps goalkeeper gloves gripping like new for the life of the gloves.
The part other goalkeepers can copy is that he showed up for every match for 13 years. He played 442 Bundesliga matches in a row, conceded one goal in four European finals and won a World Cup final that started with a penalty against him. If the foam is still on the palms, wash the gloves, let them dry, and apply KEEPER BALM before the next session.