Lutz Pfannenstiel: ‘Lazarus’ footballer who came back from the dead

He spent time in prison, stole a penguin to put in his bathtub and lived in an igloo for a week. Oh and he “died” on a football pitch.

“It wasn’t like a kaleidoscope — there was no color, it was all black and white,” Lutz Pfannenstiel tells CNN, recalling the moment 12 years ago when his life flashed before his eyes, the former goalkeeper suffering an injury which led the club’s physio at Bradford Park Avenue to think the German was dead.

It’s not for nothing the title for Pfannenstiel’s book is “The Unstoppable Keeper.”

Even now, the memory of that day in Bradford, Yorkshire, in north England, is still vivid.

“There were black and white diamonds and it was very quiet,” said Pfannenstiel, whose lungs collapsed after an opposition player’s knee smashed into his chest, preventing him from breathing. “In the background there were figures but I couldn’t make out who they were. I didn’t feel cold, I felt all warm. I felt I was floating and it wasn’t a scary feeling at all.”

After waking up from the accident and finding himself in hospital, Pfannenstiel screamed at the nurses, convinced he was paralyzed.

Raging at the abandonment of the game, in which his team was leading, he was back training within a week.

Looking back, he says he behaved “irresponsibly” and the incident proved a turning point in Pfannenstiel’s career, in which he played for 25 clubs across the globe over two decades.

As a youngster, Pfannenstiel was a highly rated player and represented Germany’s youth team at Under-17 level.

Despite the nation’s biggest club Bayern Munich making him an offer, Pfannenstiel opted to pursue his dream of playing abroad.

“I brought him back and put him in a cold bath but he wasn’t happy and he really did stink of fish.

“The president of the club came for lunch and he saw that I had the penguin.

“He said it was dangerous and that I could have been deported for having the penguin in the bathtub.”

When not kidnapping penguins or looking to save the world, Pfannenstiel spends his time working for German football Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim.

As head of scouting and international relations, he scours the planet looking for talented players which he can bring to the Bundesliga club.

He is a football analyst on German television while he has also become more of a feature on the television screens in the United Kingdom.

He also works with world governing body FIFA and for the German Football Association as a coaching instructor focusing on educating coaches all over the world.

“I’ve had to fight for everything since leaving prison,” he said. “When I came back it cost me a fortune. I didn’t have that much money — all I had was a pair of flip flops, a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and a bag full of debts.

“But I can’t complain — at least I’m not dead.”

CNN