Franz Schmitt (soccer player)

Franz Schmitt (born February 22, 1940 ) is a former German soccer player who played 159 league games with 40 goals in the second-rate Regionalliga Südwest from 1963 to 1971 as a half-striker in the World Cup system at the time at ASV Landau and SV Alsenborn . Schmitt won the championship three times in a row with Alsenborn from 1968 to 1970 and therefore played in 22 games with the SVA in the respective Bundesliga promotion rounds, in which he scored five goals.

career

ASV Landau, until 1965

ASV Landau had qualified as an amateur national champion in 1962/63, alongside six clubs from the former 2nd Southwest League, as well as 13 clubs from the previous Oberliga, for the new Bundesliga substructure of the Southwest Regional League for the 1963/64 season. The fine midfield technician Franz Schmitt was part of Landau's squad for the debut round of the second-rate regional league; previously he had already gained experience with the amateurs of the Karlsruher SC . With Karlheinz Francois, Klaus Lüdecke, Peter Schäffler and goalkeeper Wolfgang Vornehm, four newcomers came to Landau. The opening game on August 4, 1963 in the home stadium against Saarland representative SV Saar 05 Saarbrücken made it clear to the former amateur footballers what this round should be about: just staying up. The men around Fritz Altmeyer won 6-0 in Landau; Franz Schmitt had experienced the superior skills of coach Otto Knefler's team on half left . At the end of the round he had scored four goals in 26 league games, but ASV was relegated to the amateur camp in 19th place. The following season, 1964/65 , he joined Landau in the 1st Amateur League Southwest, but could not play for the title as seventh in the table. SV Alsenborn won the southwest title and rose to the regional league after the promotion rounds. The fine midfield technician Schmitt had convinced in the round and was able to prove his skills in the Southwest selection in the competition for the country cup . He represented the southwest in the games against Württemberg and the eventual cup winners Bavaria. In the south-west selection he played with the players Lorenz Horr , Willi Hölz , Fritz Fuchs and Manfred Feldmüller from Alsenborn. To round 1965/66 he accepted the offer of the climber in the Regionalliga Südwest and moved to Alsenborn.

SV Alsenborn, 1965 to 1971

In Alsenborn, the captain of the 1954 world championship team, Fritz Walter , allowed himself to be persuaded to take on a "supervisory and advisory role" at the local SVA in his new residence. The Alsenborn rose every year. For the 1965/66 round , Erwin Rödler and Willi Herbert joined Franz Schmitt and two more newcomers to coach Otto Render's team . With goalkeeper Hölz, Rödler brought experience and routine into the squad of playmaker and goal scorer Horr, and the man from Landau was hoped for an increase in the play area. Schmitt made his debut on August 14, 1965 in a 5-0 home win with Alsenborn in Regionalliga Südwest. He played on half left and scored a goal against the Röchling-Elf around Horst Zingraf , Horst Eckel and Josef Christ . He played 19 league games and scored three goals and the promoted from Alsenborn finished in ninth place in the middle.

In the second regional league year, 1966/67 , they finished eighth and the excellent combination player and template provider had also distinguished himself as a 14-time goalscorer together with Horr. Outstanding were his four goals on November 7, 1966 in a 6-1 home win against FC Homburg. With Werner Mangold , goalkeeper Manfred Krei and Jürgen Schieck, three new players joined the squad. When in the third year, 1967/68, Josef Sattmann, a fast winger, strengthened the offensive and the tall center forward Schieck conquered the top scorer's crown in the southwest with 31 hits , the team from the stadium at Kinderlehre won the championship . Schmitt had contributed ten goals in the 30 league games to the championship success. With Feldmüller - also ten goals - he positioned himself behind Schieck and Horr (24 goals) in the champions' goalscorer list. In the promotion round , the village team was third behind Hertha BSC and Rot-Weiss Essen with 8: 8 points. Schmitt had completed all eight promotion round matches against Hertha BSC, Rot-Weiss Essen, SC Göttingen 05 and FC Bayern Hof and scored one goal. The duels against defenders with the quality of Klaus Matz , Peter Klepatz , Uwe Witt , Hans Eder , Tasso Wild , Ivan Šangulin , Hans Felbinger , Roland Peitsch , Heinz Stauvermann , Werner Kik and Hans Dörre were challenges of a special kind The home games against Hertha BSC in front of 36,000 and Essen in front of 40,000 spectators in the Südweststadion in Ludwigshafen were particularly popular . The climax was the final game on June 23, 1968 against the promoted Hertha BSC (1: 1) in front of 78,000 spectators in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. The Alsenborn defensive with goalkeeper Manfred Krei, the defender couple Kirsch and Fritz Fuchs, as well as the runner row with Erwin Rödler, Klaus Schmidt and Wolfgang Röhring could stand up to Hertha, especially in connection with the half-strikers Lorenz Horr and Franz Schmitt.

Before the 1968/69 season , Alsenborn had to cope with the loss of goal scorer Schieck, and met this personality by signing talent from the amateur camp such as Werner Adler , Manfred Lenz , Franz Schwarzwälder , Erwin Schwehm , Matthias Volk and Alban Wüst . In terms of sport, the situation was coped well. However, the accidental death of trainer Render in April 1969 was tragic. Horr and stopper Klaus Schmidt led the training interim in the following weeks and Alsenborn moved into the promotion round for the second time as the defending champion from the southwest . Here, one point behind Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Freiburg FC , they failed to make it into the Bundesliga. The 3-0 away defeat on the last game day of Alsenborn, on June 22nd, against the Berlin representative Hertha Zehlendorf was one of the deciding factors for the point deficit against Oberhausen and Freiburg. The absence of playmaker and goalscorer Lorenz Horr because of his expulsion in Oberhausen (June 15) was successfully compensated for in the 2-0 home win against Freiburg on June 18, but in Berlin he was noticeably missed in the duel against Helmut Faeder and colleagues . Schmitt had played in all eight promotion round games for Alsenborn and, as the first-rate man for the combination game, had scored three goals. With the SVA, the technician in the DFB Cup had previously thrown the Bundesliga club MSV Duisburg out of the race on January 4, 1969 in a home game with a 2-1 .

Schmitt won the third southwest title in 1970 with Alsenborn in front of FK Pirmasens. That with Heiner Ueberle as the new coach and Karel Nepomucký as the successor to playmaker Horr, who had switched to the Bundesliga at Hertha BSC. In this round Manfred Lenz made the breakthrough with 24 league games and 12 goals and Reinhard Meier also strengthened the squad. Midfield technician Schmitt helped the team in 24 league appearances with six goals for the third championship. In the third round of promotion he could not seriously intervene with the SVA against Arminia Bielefeld and Karlsruher SC in the race for promotion. In his sixth round in Alsenborn, 1970/71, however, due to illnesses and injuries, he was only able to play in ten league games (two goals) for the three-time champions. He was active in the four opening games in the first half of the season, was then forced to take a month-long break and tried to continue his career in January and February 1971. With the game on February 28, 1971 at ASV Landau (1: 1), his career in the Regionalliga Südwest and SV Alsenborn ended. Fritz Walter states in his book about the “Rise of a Village Team” that Franz Schmitt “was almost perfect on the ball”. For the 1971/2 round, Schmitt took over the coaching position at Grün-Weiß Hochspeyer .

literature

• Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 9: Player Lexicon 1963-1994. Bundesliga, regional league, 2nd league. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN 978-3-89784-214-4 .
• Ulrich Homann (Hrsg.): Hellfire on Ascension. The history of the promotion rounds to the Bundesliga 1963–1974. Klartext, Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88474-346-5 .
• Fritz Walter: SV Alsenborn. Rise of a dor team. Books on Demand GmbH. ISBN 3-8311-1846-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karn, Rehberg: Spiellexikon 1963-1994. P. 447
2. ^ Fritz Walter: SV Alsenborn. Rise of a dor team. P. 113
3. ^ Fritz Walter: SV Alsenborn. Rise of a village team. P. 219