He broke his neck and kept playing in the 1956 FA Cup Final

Football's Greatest Stories - Issue 1. The story of a legend who sacrificed all for his team.

Let me set the scene. It is Saturday the 5th of May 1956, and Wembley Stadium is buzzing with anticipation. Over 100,000 fans are packed into the stands, and a television audience of five million waits at home for the start of the 1956 FA Cup final, contested between Manchester City and Birmingham City. The final score of the game is 3-1 to Manchester City as they claim their third FA Cup, but that’s not what makes the front page of the papers. What makes the front page of the papers is Bert Trautmann.

With 15 minutes left to go in the game and the scoreline at 3-1, the game was not won for Manchester City. And the fact that substitutions had not been introduced to English football by this point meant that the 11 players on the pitch were the 11 players in the squad. So after Manchester City’s iconic goalkeeper (who appeared more than 500 times for them in the league throughout his career) went down after a collision between his neck and the boots of Birmingham player Peter Murphy, things were not looking good. With 15 minutes to play and no option for substitution, the 10 men of Manchester City would have had to place an outfield player in goal and pray for the best. But that wasn’t the story that was written, because despite this collision being revealed by an X-Ray to have broken Trautmann’s neck, he continued to play for the rest of the game, no doubt in absolute agony, and unaware if the injury he had sustained would be fatal - which it was one vertebrae away from being.

And thanks to these heroics, Manchester City did win this game, claiming the 1956 FA Cup in front of Wembley and cementing Trautmann as a club legend. This is the story that most people who are aware of Bert Trautmann know, but his military involvement is also an unbelievable story to be told.

How did Trautmann end up in Manchester?

Trautmann was born and raised in Germany, and was conscripted into the Second World War in 1941, where he became a paratrooper and later served in the positions of corporal and sergeant. Trautmann was captured during the war multiple times, including by British, Soviet and French soldiers, and after escaping capture on numerous occasions, he was imprisoned in Belgium. Later, he was transferred to Essex, and after the war, he decided to settle in England, where he began to play football.

His first club opportunity was with St Helens Town, and after some time with the club, he moved to Manchester City, where he made over 500 appearances and made himself known for being one of the best goalkeepers in England. The arrival of the German in Manchester was not well-received by supporters who organised a protest and threatened to boycott the club, but after City players came out in support of Trautmann, the fans soon accepted him into the club.

However, this acceptance was not shared by rival fans, as when going to away grounds, he was a constant target of abuse from the away supporters, and initially found some of these away games extremely difficult. In January 1950, Trautmann took his first trip with Manchester City to London to play Fulham, and after a poor league campaign so far, they were unanimously expected to suffer huge defeat. They went on to lose this game 1-0, but despite the loss, Trautmann actually received a standing ovation from City fans after a standout performance from the German.

Trautman went on to win the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1956, being the first non-British or Irish winner of the award, and of course, that award win came down to those FA Cup final heroics. Trautmann was revealed to have dislocated 5 vertebrae in the moment of the collision, and the second of these vertebrae was cracked in two, with the third vertebrae wedged against the second. Without the positioning of that third vertebrae, Trautmann’s broken neck could have been fatal. These are the kind of football tales that deserve to be told, and if you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, then please make sure to comment which football tale I should tell next.