Bernd Nickel

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Bernd Nickel (born March 15, 1949 in Eisemroth ) is a former German soccer player who played 426 games for Eintracht Frankfurt from 1968 to 1983 in the Bundesliga , scoring 141 goals. No other midfielder has scored more goals in the Bundesliga. He won the DFB Cup with Eintracht in 1974 , 1975 and 1981 and the UEFA Cup in 1980 .

Bernd Nickel's autograph

career

Clubs, 1957 to 1983

The eight-year-old student Bernd Nickel started his football career in 1957 in the youth department of his home club SV Eisemroth (located in western Central Hesse ). His shooting precision, which was later also feared in the professional field - to which he owes the nickname "Doctor Hammer" - he developed himself: At home he shot for hours at a large barn door and repeatedly set new points as targets. At the age of 13 he played in his home club in the A-youth.

After a call from his uncle, he was allowed to audition for a trial training session at Eintracht Frankfurt in 1966. He was then immediately invited to a tournament with the juniors in Rotterdam, as was Bernd Hölzenbein , who came from Dehrn , about 50 kilometers from Eisemroth . In the last A youth year, 1966, the trained telecommunications technician - he did his apprenticeship in Gießen - joined the youth department of Eintracht Frankfurt and moved to Frankfurt.

Through games in the A-youth and the amateur team - Bernd Hölzenbein and Jürgen Kalb were teammates under Udo Klug's training direction - he made the leap into the Bundesliga squad of coach Elek Schwartz in 1968 . In his first professional contract, the financial side was regulated as follows: In addition to the basic monthly salary of 1,250 marks, there were bonuses of 250 marks, half for a tie and nothing for defeats. In addition, each player got 10,000 marks gross bonus money per season. Six days before his 19th birthday, on March 9, 1968, the offensive left-footer made his debut in the away game against FC Bayern Munich alongside Bernd Hölzenbein and Oskar Lotz in the Eintracht attack in the Bundesliga. Seven days later, on March 16, he entered the scorers list for the first time in the 4-1 home win against Borussia Dortmund. Nickel made nine appearances with three goals in 1967/68, Bernd Hölzenbein started his Bundesliga career with eleven games and two goals.

At the end of the round, DFB trainer Udo Lattek brought the talent to the German national soccer team of amateurs . On May 1, 1968, Nickel made his debut in the DFB team at the international match against Italy in Belluno. As an “Olympic amateur” he remained in this selection until the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

In the first year of coach Erich Ribbeck , 1968/69, Nickel was taken over from the amateur team to the license squad together with Jürgen Kalb and Günter Keifler. He played all 34 Bundesliga games and scored eight goals. In the same round there were six more appearances in the exhibition cup . In the games against FC Wacker Innsbruck (here he scored his first goals in the European Cup), Juventus Turin with Helmut Haller and Athletic Bilbao , he experienced the challenge and appeal of European club competitions at the beginning of his career. By the 1-1 home game on January 29, 1969 against Bilbao - the Spanish goalkeeper José Ángel Iribar was the outstanding man of the Basques - the Eintracht was eliminated from the competition. On June 11, 1971 Nickel played his first international match when he won 2-0 with the U-23 national team in Heilbronn against the selection of Albania.

When he was able to celebrate the triumph in the DFB Cup against Hamburger SV under coach Dietrich Weise on August 17, 1974 , he had to take a four-month break during the round due to a protracted ankle injury and could only play 21 Bundesliga games with ten goals . When Eintracht was able to defend the cup against MSV Duisburg in 1975 and came third in the Bundesliga, Nickel had been in all 34 games with eleven goals. In the last coaching year of Dietrich Weise, 1975/76, he achieved his best result with 15 goals and was also instrumental in moving Eintracht into the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup . Nickel and his comrades narrowly failed against West Ham United.

In the 1976/77 round he was confronted with the training methods of Gyula Lóránt . After the brief interlude of Weise's successor, Hans-Dieter Roos (until November 8, 1976), Lóránt took over Eintracht and took it to fourth place with its space cover system. In December 1978 Lóránt and Dettmar Cramer exchanged their jobs and Nickel and colleagues now had to deal with an eloquent “football professor”.

On August 12, 1978, at the beginning of his twelfth year in the Bundesliga, Nickel suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon; after convalescence and training build-up, another crack followed in a test match on December 5, 1978. Nickel celebrated his comeback on May 26, 1979 at the DFB Cup match against RW Oberhausen. In the Bundesliga he naturally only had three appearances with one goal in this round. When under coach Friedel Rausch the following year, 1979/80, the triumph in the UEFA Cup succeeded, Nickel was in both finals against Borussia Mönchengladbach in May 1980 for Eintracht on the field. In the decisive 1-0 home win on May 21, 1980, Nickel played his 34th game in the European Cup. 1981 - Jürgen Grabowski had ended his career and Lothar Buchmann was in charge of training - he won the DFB Cup for the third time. In the final on May 2 in Stuttgart against 1. FC Kaiserslautern , he formed the Eintracht midfield together with Werner Lorant , Norbert Nachtweih and Ronald Borchers . In the 1981/82 season he played his last European Cup games in the cup winners' competition. In March 1982, Frankfurt failed at Tottenham Hotspur . In a 2-1 home win on March 17th, Nickel played his 42nd game in the European Cup two days after his 33rd birthday.

After 16 years in the Bundesliga, he said goodbye to the 1982/83 round from the league and Eintracht Frankfurt. He experienced a change of coach again - from Helmut Senekowitsch to Branko Zebec . The last game played Nickel on June 4, 1983 in the 1: 5 defeat against Fortuna Düsseldorf , where Atli Eðvaldsson could be celebrated as a five-time goalscorer.

Together with Thomas Kroth , Uwe Müller and Ralf Falkenmayer , Nickel formed the Eintracht midfield. From 1968 to 1983 he played 426 Bundesliga games with 141 goals, 54 DFB Cup appearances with 21 goals and 42 European Cup matches with 12 goals. Together with Jürgen Grabowski and Bernd Hölzenbein, he formed the glorious "triumvirate" of Eintracht in the 1970s. They stood for offensive football, the joy of playing and combination football.

At the end of his career, Nickel played for Young Boys Bern in 1983/84 and ended his active career in the summer of 1984 after 20 league games with eleven goals for YB.

Selection teams, 1968 to 1976

From May 1, 1968 to September 8, 1972, the Frankfurt midfielder played 41 international matches with 18 goals in the German national team of amateurs . Nickel is the top scorer in this selection. The highlights with this team were the Africa trip in late 1970 / early 1971 with the international games against Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal as well as the soccer tournament at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Nickel played all six games of the DFB team during the Olympic tournament. With the 2-3 defeat against the GDR on September 8, 1972, he said goodbye to the amateur national team. With Hermann Bitz and Jürgen Kalb he formed the midfield of the team of DFB coach Jupp Derwall . Through the years together in the amateur national team , a friendship developed with the ex-Offenbach player, captain and record national player Egon Schmitt .

On June 11, 1971, he was employed in the U23 junior national team . In Heilbronn the German team won the international match against Albania with storm Horst Bertl , Uli Hoeneß , Nickel, Johannes Linßen and Arno Steffenhagen with 2-0 goals. On September 3, 1974, he scored two goals on his debut in the B national team against the A national team of Luxembourg. End of the year, on 22 December 1974 he was among the contingent of senior national team at the European Championship qualifier against Malta in Valletta. At the side of his Eintracht colleagues Bernd Hölzenbein and Charly Körbel , he and his amateur national team -mate Rudolf Seliger came on during the game. He received no further appointments in the A-Elf. From March 11, 1975 to February 25, 1976 he completed four more missions in the B national team. This ended his appointments to the DFB selection teams.

After the playing career

In his spare time, Nickel devoted himself to playing golf . He also acted as a players' agent in the 80s - the European Football Union had granted him a license. For many years, Nickel ran a sporting goods store in Herborn in the Lahn-Dill district , which he gave up on January 31, 2012.

various

Nickel scored four of his goals from a corner kick, from all four corners of the Frankfurt Waldstadion.

literature

  • Matthias Kropp (ed.): Germany's great football teams, part 7: Eintracht Frankfurt . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1995, ISBN 3-928562-53-3 (AGON sport statistics; 14).
  • Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
  • Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 .
  • Matthias Weinrich, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 6: German Cup history since 1935. Pictures, statistics, stories, constellations. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-146-0 .
  • Matthias Kropp: Triumphs in the European Cup. All games of the German clubs since 1955 (= "AGON Sportverlag statistics." Volume 20). AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-75-4 .
  • Football, my life & me . In: 11 friends. Magazine for Football Culture , Vol. 12 (2011), June, pp. 117–121, ISSN  1860-0255 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 11 friends. Football culture magazine. June 2011, Football, my life & me , p. 117.
  2. ↑ 11 friends. Football culture magazine. June 2011, Football, my life & me , p. 118.
  3. ↑ Kicker Almanach 1987 - p. 137 - ISBN 3-7679-0245-1 .
  4. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Bernd Nickel - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. October 1, 2015. Accessed November 16, 2015.
  5. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Bernd Nickel - International Appearances . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. October 1, 2015. Accessed November 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ Before the Bayern game: And then ... Oberhausen . Frankfurter Rundschau. April 22, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  7. ↑ Corner goal Bernd Nickel 1975 . Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  8. ↑ Bernd Nickel and the corner balls . Retrieved November 27, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Nickel, Bernd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisemroth