Detlef Pirsig

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Detlef Pirsig (born October 22, 1945 in Schwerin ; † December 9, 2019 in Mülheim ) was a German football player and coach. He played for many years for MSV Duisburg and was used in 337 Bundesliga games between 1965 and 1977.

Player career

Pirsig was born in Schwerin. In his childhood he had lived near the Danish border and in Osnabrück before he moved to the Duisburg district of Meiderich at the age of 16 . The family's landlord at that time was a supporter of Meidericher SV (from 1967 MSV Duisburg ) and initiated Detlef's registration in the youth team of this club. The youngster had previously considered a career at the neighboring club Hamborn 07 . As early as the A-Juniors , he developed a tough style of play, for which he was known as a professional and which was expressed in particular in a corresponding duel. He was therefore nicknamed "iron foot".

In 1965, the defender moved up from the youth of the MSV to the professional team. At first he only served as a reservist, which is why he only made his debut in the Bundesliga on March 12, 1966 in a 1-0 defeat by Eintracht Braunschweig . The then 20-year-old also had no direct contribution to the 1966 DFB Cup final and was not on the field in the 2-4 defeat in the final against FC Bayern Munich . In the following time he was called up more regularly, while for the Ruhr area team the fight against relegation was increasingly in the foreground. During the summer break in 1968, some regular players said goodbye without sufficient compensation through newcomers. This favored that Pirsig, under coach Robert Gebhardt, became an integral part of the first team and from then on hardly missed a competitive game for years. Despite the low financial resources, the Meidericher kept in the league in the following years. This was also thanks to a strong defensive row around Pirsig, which in 1968/69 allowed the second fewest goals behind champions FC Bayern Munich with 37 goals conceded.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Bernard Dietz , Klaus Wunder , Rudi Seliger and Ronald Worm moved several future national players into the squad, while Pirsig remained a top performer on the defensive and was also the team captain at times. Even in these years, the team mostly played against relegation, but reaching the DFB Cup final in 1975 was an important success. In the final, he led the team onto the pitch as captain, but suffered a 1-0 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt with a goal from Karl-Heinz Körbel . Nevertheless, by participating in the finals, the qualification for the UEFA Cup 1975/76 was successful, which enabled Pirsig to participate in the European competition for the first time. The tournament for Duisburg ended in the second round due to an unfortunate defeat against Levski Sofia .

Since Pirsig never had any notable breaks in injuries or performance drops, he was placed almost continuously and only missed eight Bundesliga games between 1968 and 1977. In his last years in Duisburg the team stabilized and took positions in the middle of the table. In 1977, the 31-year-old left MSV after 337 Bundesliga games with nine goals to take on a role as a player-coach at BV Lüttringhausen in the regional league. Between 1982 and 1984 he played 48 second division games with four goals for this club and then finally ended his playing career at the age of 38.

Act as a trainer and functionary

From 1977 he worked as a player-coach at BV Lüttringhausen, with whom he made promotion to the second division in 1982/83. There he had to give up the coaching position in order to continue to be eligible to play. After BVL's relegation, Pirsig coached the third division club Wuppertaler SV from 1984 to 1986 . For the 1986/87 season he took over his ex-club MSV Duisburg, which had also been relegated to the third-class league, which he was able to return to the 2nd Bundesliga in 1989. With this success, he said goodbye to Duisburg at the same time and went back to BV Lüttringhausen, now renamed BVL 08 Remscheid. In 1991 he also succeeded in qualifying for the second highest German division with this club - which in 1990 merged with VfB Remscheid to form FC Remscheid. During the 1993/94 season he temporarily took over the amateur club Schwarz-Weiß Essen before he worked again in Remscheid in 1996. In the summer break of 1998 he said goodbye there and moved to the top division FC Wegberg-Beeck , where he was available for a year as a coach.

On November 1, 2000, he took over the post of sports director at MSV Duisburg and also joined its board shortly afterwards. In the following years, the second division fought primarily against relegation. Internally there were also differences between Pirsig and trainer Seppo Eichkorn , which led to Eichkorn's dismissal in May 2001. Pirsig gave up the post of sports director in the spring of 2003 and was then employed in the club's youth division. He held his position on the board until 2005. Even after reaching retirement age, he remained loyal to the old men’s team of MSV and continued to attend every home game of the professional team. In 2014 he was made an honorary member of the association and shortly thereafter also included in its seven-member honorary council .

Pirsig died on December 9, 2019 after a serious illness in a Mülheim hospital.

literature

  • Dagmar Dahmen, Hermann Kewitz, Bernd Bemmann: MSV Duisburg - the chronicle: where Meiderich wins… . Published by MSV Duisburg GmbH & Co. KGaA. Mercator-Verlag, Duisburg, 2nd edition, 2005, ISBN 3-87463-391-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kai Griepenkerl: Detlef Pirsig in an interview: "Before someone met me, I knocked them out" . RevierSport.de , May 3, 2013, accessed April 25, 2017.
  2. ^ A b Franz Josef Colli: What's going on with the MSV? Welt am Sonntag , September 23, 2001, accessed April 25, 2017.
  3. ↑ Dahmen / Kewitz / Bemmann: MSV Duisburg - the Chronicle , p. 97.
  4. ↑ Bundesliga 1968/1969 . Fussballdaten.de, accessed on April 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Dahmen / Kewitz / Bemmann: MSV Duisburg - the Chronicle , p. 113f.
  6. ↑ Detlef Pirsig - Trainer profile . transfermarkt.de , accessed on April 25, 2017.
  7. ↑ Separation after Zoff with sports director Detlef Pirsig: MSV fires coach Eichkorn . RP Online , May 30, 2001, accessed April 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ Andreas Dach: Detlef Pirsig is 60 years old . Interview in Remscheider General-Anzeiger , December 24, 2014, accessed on April 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Dahmen / Kewitz / Bemmann: MSV Duisburg - the Chronicle , p. 109.
  10. ↑ Thorsten Richter: MSV Duisburg: The honorary council now has seven members . RevierSport.de , September 26, 2014, accessed April 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ msv-duisburg.de: Mourning Detlef Pirsig: Legend dies at 74
personal data
SURNAME Pirsig, Detlef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwerin
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2019
Place of death Mülheim