Ulrich "Uli" Hesse, also ~ Hesse-Lichtenberger, (born 1966 in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

) is a German

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

Life and work

He graduated from

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

University in 1994, having written his M.A. thesis about

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. He has covered popular music for fanzines and magazines, such as the German edition of

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

, but primarily writes about sports, predominantly (association) football. Hesse has published articles in newspapers and magazines in a variety of countries, including

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, and was the editor of the German-language edition of "Champions", the official

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

Champions League magazine, for which he worked as a contributing editor until the publication's demise in 2015. Between 2002 and 2016, he was a regular columnist for

ESPN FC ESPN FC (formerly ESPN SoccerNet) is a website and a U.S. television studio program covering soccer that is broadcast daily over the streaming service ESPN+. ESPN FC's origin was a website owned by ESPN Inc. Originally established in 1995 as Soc ...

(formerly ESPNsoccernet), which has been called the world's most popular

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

website. In September 2016, he joined the editorial staff of

11 Freunde 11 Freunde (german language, German for ''11 friends'') is a monthly German sports magazine. The magazine was founded in 2000 by Reinaldo Coddou H. and Philipp Köster. Köster is also its editor-in-chief. It is published monthly in Berlin. The ...

magazine, Germany's biggest football monthly. So far, Hesse has published nine books. "Tor! The Story of German Football" (2002) was the first extensive English-language history of German football and has since been translated into Japanese, Danish and Polish. It was named the sixth best football book of all time by

FourFourTwo ''FourFourTwo'' is a football magazine published by Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4-4-2. In 2008, it was announced that ''FourFourTwo'' had e ...

magazine in 2016. Two of his German-language books were nominated for the Football Book of the Year Award. His English-language book about Borussia Dortmund and their support, "Building the Yellow Wall", won the 2019 British Sports Book Award for Best Football Book. Hesse is a

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

season ticket holder. He has listed the novelty song "Jilted John" by

Jilted John ''Jilted'' is the past tense of jilt Jilt or may refer to: * Jilț, a tributary of the river Jiu in Romania * Jilț Coal Mine, an open-pit mine in Romania * ''The Jilt'', a 1922 American drama film directed by Irving Cummings * A B-girl (archa ...

as his all-time favourite 7" A-side and the punk rock classic "Born to Lose" by

the Heartbreakers The Heartbreakers, sometimes referred to as Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, were an American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock. History Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry N ...

as the greatest-ever 7" B-side. For more than a decade he published as "Hesse-Lichtenberger", a name acquired through marriage. In October 2009 he went back to his birth name and now usually publishes as Uli Hesse.

Publications

*''Tor! The Story of German Football (2002) Hardcover edition'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2003) Extended paperback edition'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2005) Japanese hardcover edition'' *''Flutlicht und Schatten: Die Geschichte des Europapokals (2005)'' *''Wie Österreich Weltmeister wurde. 111 unglaubliche Fußballgeschichten (2008)'' *''Mesut Özil: Auf dem Weg zum Weltstar (2012) with Andreas Spohr and Heiko Buschmann'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2012) Danish edition'' *''Unser ganzes Leben - Die Fans des BVB (2013) with Gregor Schnittker'' *''Who Invented the Stepover? (2013) with Paul Simpson'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2013) Revised and updated edition'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2014) Polish edition'' *''Who Invented the Bicycle Kick? (2014) with Paul Simpson'' *''Wer erfand den Übersteiger? (2015) with Paul Simpson'' *''Alles BVB! Unverzichtbares Wissen rund um die Schwarzgelben (2016)'' *''Bayern: Creating a Global Superclub (2016)'' *''Bayern München (2016) Dutch edition'' *''Bayern: Globalny Superklub (2018) Polish edition'' *''Bayern (2018) Hungarian edition'' *''Building the Yellow Wall: The Incredible Rise and Cult Appeal of Borussia Dortmund (2018)'' *''Borussia Dortmund: Siła żółtej ściany (2019) Polish edition'' *''Így épült a Sárga Fal – A Borussia Dortmund hihetetlen felemelkedése és kulturális jelentősége (2021) Hungarian edition'' *''Tor! The Story of German Football (2022) New revised and updated edition''

References

External links

Interview on Shoot Farken

Interview on Bundesliga Talk

Podcast interview on Bundesliga Diairies

Description of Tor! from When Saturday Comes Publishing Company

Building the Yellow Wall on Amazon.co.uk

Author's page at North Literary Agency
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse, Ulrich Living people 1966 births German sports journalists German male journalists German male writers