Bruce Macdonald with a copy of Lutz Pfannenstiel's book, The Incredible Adventures of the Unstoppable Goalkeeper. PHOTO/Glenn Taylor
A former professional goalkeeper has paid tribute to a Hawke's Bay man for enabling him to make an "incredible globe-trotting, life-changing football" journey.
Lutz Pfannenstiel, of Germany, has acknowledged Port Hill Soccer Club stalwart Bruce Macdonald in his book, The Incredible Adventures of the Unstoppable Goalkeeper.
"To Bruce Macdonald, Marc Chidley and all the players and staff at Dunedin Technical - the peace and tranquillity of New Zealand, and your warm, friendly attitude saved my career," Pfannenstiel says in his German best seller, first published in 2009 but only translated from his native tongue to English this year.
"In the end it was a friend [Macdonald] I had met years earlier at a training camp in Brazil who brought the unexpected twist in my life," says the keeper who is the only man to play professionally in all six Fifa confederations.
A former Wimbledon and Nottingham Forrest player who plied his trade for 25 clubs in 13 countries embracing six continents, Pfannenstiel's world turned upside down on January 7, 2001, when he was sentenced to five months' imprisonment for allegedly fixing matches in Singapore. He was released on appeal after serving five months.
"He [Macdonald] knew that despite my hardships in Singapore I'd easily be one of the best goalkeepers in the league there," Pfannenstiel writes in a chapter, "Back to Square One".
While he was paid $4000 a month, the highest Dunedin Technical ever paid for a player, it was loose change for Pfannenstiel.
A football nutter born in Zwiesel in the Bavarian forest, he found the "seclusion and tranquillity" the ideal sanctuary to revive his flagging career.
Macdonald, of Napier, says: "I asked him if he did it and I knew he didn't and it was proven after that."
Fifa had banned Pfannenstiel from playing football but rescinded that after he was absolved of all charges.
"But it was like mud sticks and no one wanted to play him so I asked him to come to New Zealand with the promise I'd find him a club to play," Macdonald says of Pfannenstiel who arrived in the country in 2002.
"I approached Napier City Rovers and they were not interested in him," he says, putting his feelers out to Dunedin Technical's Roger Brooks who was the best man at Macdonald's wedding in England in 1972.
Brooks viewed film footage of Pfannenstiel, reaffirmed matters with Macdonald and the rest is history.
"Roger took him on and he kept coming back," Macdonald says of Pfannenstiel who reveals in his book he had kidnapped a blue penguin in Dunedin and kept it in his bathtub, causing immense consternation to club president Chidley who feared he was going to cop a $10,000 fine in breaching the laws pertaining to the protected species.
This came from the same man who had pet monkeys, Glasnost and Perestroika, in Singapore and lived in an igloo.
Pfannenstiel had to redecorate his Singaporean apartment after the primates were done with it.
He turned down an offer to play for Bayern Munich because he didn't want to play second fiddle to Oliver Kahn.
On Boxing Day in 2003, his heart stopped on the pitch while he was playing for Bradford Park Avenue in the Unicorn League.
He'll "never forget that kiss" from team physio Ray Killick for saving his life three times.
Ironically, he and Kahn travel together these days as a TV commentary team for German and African stations.
Pfannenstiel is a recruitment and retention director of German club Hoffenheim competing in the Bundesliga, a club McDonald says is about the size of Rovers in Napier.
He tends to scout for players "who aren't that well known".
"You don't have to have the money that [Roman] Abramovich has to pay them because they groom their own players for the Bundesliga," Macdonald says of the Chelsea FC owner.
Pfannenstiel will be visiting New Zealand for the Fifa Under-20 men's World Cup next winter.
"He'll be going to all the games," Macdonald says of Pfannenstiel who is married to Uzbekistan-born Amalia.
Macdonald says the German is also on an ecological mission "to save the planet from pollution" after having set up a club, Global United FC, a non-profit entity that has the backing of John Barnes, Jari Litmanen, Cafu, Lothar Matthaus and Zinedine Zidane.
Pfannenstiel is in the throes of organising a fundraising match in the Antarctica, involving the likes of David Beckham and Maradona, to raise money for the cause.
"He tried to organise it for New Zealand but it fell through and Australia took it," Macdonald says.