Günter Karnhof

Günter "Ille" Karnhof (born October 21, 1931 in Gelsenkirchen ; † June 20, 2015 ) was a German football player .

career

The trained painter and house painter began his career at SV Heßler 06 . In the west of Gelsenkirchner, in 1952, the blue-blacks from the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion were promoted to the Westphalia regional league . "Ille" Karnhof was one of the leading figures in the promotion team. It was not until the 1955/56 season that the hard-working and strong midfielder switched to FC Schalke 04 in what was then the first-class Oberliga West . From 1955 until the end of his career in 1965 he played for the former "Knappen-Elf". His greatest success was winning the German championship in 1958.

The tireless fighter, also known as the "worker bee" and "Terrier", played 136 league games for Schalke from 1955 to 1963 and scored one goal. He made his league debut on August 27, 1955 in a 1: 2 home defeat against Fortuna Düsseldorf on the left outside runner position. From the third season, 1957/58 , he belonged to the regular formation of "Royal Blue". In this round Schalke won the western championship by one point over 1. FC Köln and Karnhof had played 27 league games. In the shortened final round of the German football championship because of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden , he took part in all three group games against Eintracht Braunschweig (4: 1), Tennis Borussia Berlin (9: 0) and Karlsruher SC (3: 0); Schalke moved into the final with 6-0 points. He won the final with Schalke on May 18 in Hanover in front of 80,000 spectators with a 3-0 win against Hamburger SV . In the victorious team, together with Karl Borutta and Otto Laszig, he formed the strong runner row against the internal storm of the north champion with Klaus Stürmer , Uwe Seeler and Günter Schlegel .

After the western runner-up in 1962, he moved into the finals a second time. Again he played four games; but it was not enough against Borussia Neunkirchen, Tasmania 1900 Berlin and 1. FC Nürnberg to reach the final again.

After founding the Bundesliga in 1963, Karnhof played 34 games and scored one goal. He made his debut under coach Georg Gawliczek on October 5, 1963 in a 3: 4 away defeat against Eintracht Braunschweig in the new class. He formed the Schalker runner series with Willi Schulz and Egon Horst . When his club finished 16th in the second Bundesliga year of 1964/65 , the "last cyclist in Schalke" played 24 league games under coach Fritz Langner alongside teammates like Friedel Rausch , Hans Nowak and Manfred Kreuz . His last Bundesliga appearance was on April 30, 1965, when he lost 3-1 away at 1860 Munich, when he had to compete again with offensive greats such as Engelbert Kraus , Hans Küppers , Rudolf Brunnenmeier , Peter Grosser and Alfred Heiss .

Due to recurring circulatory problems, he ended his playing career and retrained as an administrative clerk at the city of Gelsenkirchen.

Trivia

Günter Karnhof was the first Schalke player to be sent off in the Bundesliga. On the 11th matchday of the first season he clashed with the opposing player Otto Rehhagel from Hertha BSC .

literature

• Georg Röwekamp: The myth is alive. The history of FC Schalke 04. Verlag Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2003. ISBN 3-89533-332-8 .
• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .

Web links

• Günter Karnhof in the database of weltfussball.de
• Obituary at FC Schalke 04 ( Memento from August 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive )