Erich Hof

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Grave Erich Hof, Hernalser Friedhof

Erich Hof (born August 3, 1936 in Brigittenau , Vienna ; † January 25, 1995 in Vienna) was an Austrian football player and later football coach. He is considered one of the greatest idols of the Viennese sports club and was one of the most successful strikers in the history of the Austrian national team . As a trainer, he was also allowed to look after the Austrian team for over two years.

Career

Erich Hof was noticed at an early age because of his wit, his technique, the free kicks and overview at Brigittenauer SCR Hochstädt and reminded a little of Matthias Sindelar through his silence . From Hochstädt he came to Dornbach for the Sport-Club, where, at the age of 17, he scored his first league goal in the championship game against the WAC after only six minutes when he made his debut in the State League on March 6, 1954 . Together with Walter Horak , Adolf Knoll , Josef Hamerl and Karl Skerlan , the tricky center forward soon portrayed the famous five-man attack by Dornbacher, with which the club dominated Austrian football in the late 1950s. For two years, or 41 games in a row, Erich Hof and his team remained undefeated, becoming champions twice and top scorer twice during this time. Erich Hof also played a decisive role in the great successes in the WSC European Cup. In the legendary second leg in the European Cup against Juventus Turin on October 1, 1958 , he scored two goals in a 7-0 win at the Prater Stadium (Juve won 3-1 in the first leg). His 224 championship goals for the WSC are unmatched to this day, his engagement in Dornbach was only interrupted by a short interlude at Wiener Austria .

Erich Hof's hit rate in the national team is only exceeded by Anton Schall . He was one of the regulars of the Decker era, but missed participation in a world championship. Hof delighted in many international games. A particularly outstanding performance in a game against Hungary in the autumn of 1961 prompted the well-known Hungarian sports reporter and football expert Georg Szepesi to comment (albeit an exaggerated one) that Erich Hof was "the best player in the world". There is no doubt that Hof was world class in terms of technology, overview of the game and wealth of ideas. Erich Hof did not have to end his team career because of falling performance - he scored nine goals in his last five international matches - a serious meniscus injury put an end to his active football career in 1968.

Club coach

As early as April 19, 1968 he (still as a player), together with Johann Buzek (after Ernst Galli's resignation), who was injured in the friendly against SC Helfort Wien (Regionalliga Ost ), had been an interim coach at the Wiener Sport-Club before the former sports club -Player and "32-time international" Leopold Barschandt took over this post. From the end of June 1969 he was (after the brief interlude in April 1968 again) a coach at the sports club , where he had been active as a player until the end. They achieved an excellent second place in the championship, but there was the out in the second round in the cup (0: 1 at First Vienna FC 1894 ). Also in the 1970/71 season, the Cup ended in the round of 16 (1: 2 defeat n.V. at SK Sturm Graz ), and on March 9, 1971 he was - with 19 points (seven points behind the then Leader SV Austria Salzburg lying in 5th place) before the 18th round or the match of the Dornbachers at SK VÖEST Linz , which took place on March 13, 1971, de facto removed. An offer had been made to him that he would have to cut back on his sole responsibility as a coach, which he refused. There had already been a controversy with club secretary Ebert in the fall of 1970. From the aforementioned match in Linz, President Josef Draxler and “Co” Galli took part in the Wr. Sports clubs place. From the summer of 1971 Hof succeeded Karl Schlechta at runner-up Salzburg (who was now coach at FC Admira / Wacker ). He finished fourth with the Salzburg team in the 1971/72 season, but they separated. When the Wr. Sports club had to relegate in tenth place after the 1973/74 season due to the major football reform, Hof took over its support in the 2nd division and was able to return to the division (after ranks 2 and 3 in the game years 1974/75 and 1975/76) Bring back the 1st division and even became runner-up with it in 1978/79. From 1979/80 he was in charge of FK Austria Wien , with whom he became champion twice in a row (1979/80 even double winner!) And 1981/82 runner-up. With the 3-0 home win against the Grazer AK on March 27, 1982, although he was three points ahead of Rapid in first place with 36 points, his coaching work ended. Hof officially resigned himself on April 1st, he had previously announced that he would end his coaching activity at Austria at the end of the season and stated that the reason for the premature departure was that "the new coach could familiarize himself better" (for the time being, Co- Coach Wilhelm Kainrath , before the already designated Václav Halama became the new coach shortly afterwards). After the departure of Rudolf Eggenberger , who resigned after the 2: 2 at the Vienna Sports Club on March 14, 1987 at SK VOEST Linz (the Dornbachers were in 6th place in the "Upper Play Off"), Hans Krankl was initially presented as the new coach, but shortly afterwards Hof was again the actual new coach, although he only stayed until the end of the season. From January 1989 there was a renewed commitment at Austria Wien, because August Starek , who had only worked as a coach for four months at SK Vorwärts Steyr until the 1: 2 defeat on November 12, 1988 , had resigned on November 16. Robert Sara had looked after the team in the remaining three fall matches. On March 28, 1990, Hof's second coaching time with the Violets ended - from the 29th round on March 30, 1990 Herbert Prohaska was on the supervisor's bench.





National team coach

After the 1982 World Cup, he was preferred to the opponent in the presidium meeting in the Prater Stadium on September 6, 1982 (it was - as in 1978 when Karl Stotz was nominated - Günter Praschak from Salzburg ), and a day later he took up his post as Austrian Team boss. For the time being, however, he was only hired for the three autumn matches, all home matches in Vienna from European Championship qualification group 6 for 1984, because he had announced that he wanted to go abroad in the spring of 1983. His fee was set at 100,000 schillings for this.
His first match was on September 22nd, 1982 with the 5-0 win over Albania - and the first record was 3 games, 3 wins, 11-0 goals. He also remained (after his contract extension) in Vienna in 1983 against the Federal Republic of Germany with 0-0 (April 27) and the 2-1 victory on June 8 in Tirana . But with three defeats in the autumn of 1983 the qualification (only group third with 9 points from eight games behind the Federal Republic of Germany and Northern Ireland [11 points each; only the group first took part in the European Championship finals]) was missed. In addition, he had to accept injury-related failures and form lows from playmakers.
It was still for him at a meeting of the football association on the weekend of 22/23. October 1983 in Bad Kleinkirchheim the confidence was expressed and it was said that Hof would be interested in “mending the failure (which at that time was still considered likely) with a qualification for participation in the 1986 World Cup”.
In this series of negative events, he also suffered injuries (severe concussion, chest contusions) in an accident he had caused on the morning of November 19 when he drove his car into two trams in Vienna (on the Ringstrasse in front of Parliament).
Hof was perhaps also somewhat “handicapped” by the emerging generation change in the national team, although he emphasized even before the friendly against the Netherlands on November 14 in Vienna (with a 1-0 win) that he “signed his contract regardless of this result will comply ". The international match record in 1984 was negative with 2 wins, one draw and three defeats (5: 8 goals), the entire "court record" since he took office with this victory with 6 wins and losses as well as 3 draws (22:20 goals) balanced . Ultimately, his resignation came as a surprise, although he announced it in front of a handful of journalists - and not the ÖFB President Beppo Mauhart , who was abroad at the time . ÖFB Vice President Reitbauer said that he regretted this step - and also the way in which it came about. Hof stated in an interview that he was "not Mauhart's preferred candidate, and spoke of his own bad public image, which had damaged the team - and Mauhart had already negotiated with possible successors before the Holland game". The separation from the ÖFB took place on November 27, 1984, when its board of directors had accepted his resignation offer (whereby President Beppo Mauhart regretted the resignation; he would have "seen no problems for further cooperation" and "he would only use the alleged reasons for resignation as an excuse") ). Branko Elsner became his successor.

Memorial plaque at the address Hernalser Hauptstraße 214 (2019)

Hof then worked briefly as a trainer in Greece at Diagoras Rhodos (1987). Erich Hof continued to work as a consultant for Sport-Club and Austria until his death. On January 25, 1995, Erich Hof died at the Vienna General Hospital at the age of 58 from years of cancer . A memorial plaque has been commemorating the great footballer on his home in Hernalser Hauptstrasse 214 for several years.

Erich Hof was buried in Vienna at the Hernalser Friedhof (group 16, row EG, number 16).

Stations

player

Trainer

successes

player

Trainer

ÖFB international matches under team boss Erich Hof

Legend
  • H = home game
  • A = away game
  • - = no official international match
  • green background color = victory of Austria
  • yellow background color = tie
  • red background color = defeat
Games Victories draw Defeats Gates TD
15th 6th 3 6th 22:20 +2
No. date Result opponent venue occasion comment
461 09/22/1982 5-0 Albania 1946People's Socialist Republic of Albania Albania H Vienna EM 1984 qualification First international match in the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium
462 10/13/1982 2-0 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Northern Ireland H Vienna EM 1984 qualification
463 11/17/1982 4-0 TurkeyTurkey Turkey H Vienna EM 1984 qualification
464 04/27/1983 0-0 Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany Germany H Vienna EM 1984 qualification
465 05/17/1983 2: 2 Soviet UnionSoviet Union Soviet Union H Vienna
466 06/08/1983 2: 1 Albania 1946People's Socialist Republic of Albania Albania A. Tirana ( ALB ) EM 1984 qualification
467 09/21/1983 1: 3 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Northern Ireland A. Belfast ( NIR ) EM 1984 qualification
468 05/10/1983 0: 3 Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany Germany A. Gelsenkirchen ( GER ) EM 1984 qualification
469 11/16/1983 1: 3 TurkeyTurkey Turkey A. Istanbul ( TUR ) EM 1984 qualification Austria missed the European Championship qualification as third party
470 03/28/1984 0: 1 FranceFrance France A. Bordeaux ( FRA )
471 04/18/1984 0-0 GreeceGreece Greece H Vienna
472 05/02/1984 2: 1 Cyprus RepublicRepublic of Cyprus Cyprus A. Nicosia ( CYP ) 1986 World Cup qualification
- 06/07/1984 6-0 LiechtensteinLiechtenstein Liechtenstein A. Vaduz ( LIE ) First international match against Liechtenstein, no official international match
473 09/12/1984 1: 3 DenmarkDenmark Denmark A. Copenhagen ( DEN )
474 09/26/1984 1: 3 Hungary 1957Hungary Hungary A. Budapest ( HUN ) 1986 World Cup qualification
475 11/14/1984 1-0 NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands H Vienna 1986 World Cup qualification

Web links

Commons : Erich Hof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Middle right: «Buzek suffered a muscle tear» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 28, 1968, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ middle, columns 3 and 4: “Barschandt Sportklubtrainer” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 20, 1968, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ bottom right: «No second class coach» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 10, 1971, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ↑ Middle: “Vienna wants to stop Salzburger”, column 2, last paragraph . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 13, 1971, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  5. ^ "Weekend and Sunshine" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 29, 1982, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  6. ↑ Top box: "Well-wishers a year ago, now successor" and box on the left: "Who understands?" In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 3, 1982, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  7. ^ "Krankl's debut as a coach" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 21, 1987, p. 22 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized version).
  8. ↑ middle left: «finger pointing the round» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 23, 1987, p. 21 ( arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  9. ↑ «With Baez, but without Starek» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 17, 1988, p. 21 ( arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  10. ^ "After the hobby match, Hof became team boss" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna September 7, 1982, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  11. ^ "Radical cure arouses skepticism" and box in column 5: "Between 1 and 50" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna September 8, 1982, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  12. ↑ Middle: “Hof in front of Gelsenkirchen in dire straits: two are outside, two out of step” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 1st 1983, p. 20 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized version).
  13. ↑ Box in the middle: "It remains with 16 clubs" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 24, 1983, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  14. ↑ «Raggautz:" Could mean the transfer of Hof "" and the gloss below "Soberly considered" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 21, 1983, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  15. ↑ Middle right: "Erich Hof is doing better" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 22, 1983, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  16. ↑ Box at the bottom right: "At the crossroads" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 12, 1984, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  17. ↑ Top left box: "Hof:" Keep contract "" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 15, 1984, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  18. ↑ "Annual balance negative" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 15, 1984, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  19. ↑ top left: “Sensation: Hof took hat. “Basis of trust is missing” » . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 22, 1984, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  20. ↑ «No more basis of trust» and comment on the left «Sports interview» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 22, 1984, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  21. ↑ top right: "Hof went, is W. Ludescher coming?" In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 28, 1984, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  22. ↑ RSSSF Greece: 1978/88
personal data
SURNAME Hof, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Brigittenau , Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1995
Place of death Brigittenau , Vienna