The man who introduces the new shoes (with screw-on spikes) to the coach is initially referred as "Adi". Later, his last name is revealed as "Dassler". He was the founder of Adidas, the sports wear company.
After a private sneak preview in August 2003, director Sönke Wortmann and Rudi Völler, coach of the German national soccer team in 2003, discussed luring Helmut Rahn (former goalgetter and scorer of the important last goal in Bern), who lived reclusively, to the official premiere of the movie. Rahn died that night.
While the Lubanski family part of the story is completely fictional, many historic details related to soccer (letters, game results, three players stealing away from training camp, on-the-spot-reports, Adi Dassler etc.) are historical accurate.
Sönke Wortmann used memories of his own childhood in the Ruhr area for the film. For example, just as Matthias does in the film, the young Wortmann used to hide in his rabbit hutch when he was sad, viewing the rabbits as his friends and intimates--until the day his father slaughtered them for a Sunday meal.
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