Gerry Neef

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Gerry Neef
Personnel
Surname Gerhard Neef
birthday December 30, 1946
place of birth Hausham ,  Germany
date of death February 23, 2010
Place of death Nuremberg ,  Germany
position goalkeeper
Juniors
Years station
SV Hamborn 1890
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
0000-1968 VfvB Ruhrort-Laar
1968-1973 Glasgow Rangers 33 (0)
1973-1975 1. FC Nuremberg 43 (0)
1975-1979 FC Herzogenaurach
1 Only league games are given.

Gerhard "Gerry" Neef (born December 30, 1946 in Hausham ; † February 23, 2010 in Nuremberg ) was a German football player .

Football career

Neef played from 1968 to 1973 for the Scottish club Glasgow Rangers , with whom he won the European Cup in 1972 . He is one of the most successful players to ever wear the jerseys of the Duisburg clubs SV Hamborn 1890 and VfvB Ruhrort / Laar. The goalkeeper went through the youth teams of the Hamborner before he moved with coach Hermann Arndt to VfvB Ruhrort-Laar , with whom he played in the highest German amateur class.

Neef came from the “Ruhrschen” to the legendary club from Scotland via a curious path. Even Neef himself didn't know how Scottish clubs actually got their attention. There are two possibilities: On the one hand, he played with a Duisburg city selection in a friendly match in Duisburg's English twin city Portsmouth . On the other hand, as a police student in Mönchengladbach, he parried the balls in the military league of the Rhine Army in Rheindahlen. In addition, his then wife, Marcia Schottin, was 2nd Lieutenant in the British Army.

First he was invited by FC Aberdeen in 1967 , but was lured away by the Glasgow Rangers during the negotiations. After another season at VfvB Ruhrort / Laar, but already paid for by the Rangers, Neef finally moved to Glasgow. Initially, he didn't play a single game and was one of the club's six goalkeepers.

1970 was the hour for Gerry Neef: he was used in a catch-up game, played without a goal, while the regular players were spared for the league cup final. Surprisingly, Neef was also used in this final, as the goalkeeper Norrie Martin had injured himself before the game. After beating the final 4-0, Neef was Rangers' number one. That same year, Rangers fans voted him the best player of the year. Neef also became famous for playing without gloves. When the Rangers won the European Cup in 1972, however, Peter McCloy was in goal because Neef was injured in the quarterfinals.

Neef experienced the worst moment on January 2, 1971, during the Ibrox Disaster . 66 people died shortly before the end of the Old Firm derby between the Glasgow Rangers and Celtic Glasgow when a mass panic broke out on a staircase.

After his time with the Glasgow Rangers, Gerry Neef moved to 1. FC Nürnberg , for which he played 43 games in the Regionalliga Süd and in the 2. Bundesliga Süd. He then went to FC Herzogenaurach , where he ended his career in 1979.

The rest of life

His daughter from his first marriage, Melanie Neef , became a successful athlete and European champion over 400 meters in Scotland.

In 2004 he married his partner Eleonore. Neef's health was struggling, developing cancer and meningitis. He died of throat cancer on February 23, 2010 in Nuremberg.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ In Scotland he was wrongly listed under the name Gerhardt Neef.
personal data
SURNAME Neef, Gerry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neef, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Hausham
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 2010
Place of death Nuremberg