Gerhard Clement

Gerhard Clement (born November 25, 1938 in Herne ) is a former German soccer player who, in the 1958/59 season as a striker with Westfalia Herne, won the championship in the Oberliga West and with 28 goals the top scorer's crown .

career

Oberliga West, until 1963

The young striker Gerhard Clement, who came from his own youth department, was first used by coach Fritz Langner at the age of 18 on August 11, 1957 in the 0-1 home defeat by Alemannia Aachen in the Oberliga West. Together with the left connector Heinz Crawatzo , he formed the left wing of the blue-whites from the stadium at Strünkede Castle . On the final day of the round, on April 13, 1958, he was celebrated as a double goal scorer in the 2-1 away win at Rot-Weiss Essen. At the side of the top performers Hans Tilkowski , Alfred Pyka and Helmut Benthaus , he played thirteen league games in his debut round and scored eight goals. The club from the inner city of Herne took twelfth place in 1957/58 - one rank ahead of local rivals SV Sodingen - and nothing indicated that coach Langner's team could move up to the top of the league in the next few rounds.

With an outstanding defensive performance - in 30 rounds of games the opposing attackers only hit the Herner Tor guarded by Hans Tilkowski 23 times - and the 28 goals of the new West top scorer Gerhard Clement, Westfalia Herne surprisingly got six points ahead of the 1958/59 1. FC Cologne and Fortuna Dusseldorf the West German championship. The players Horst Wandolek , Kurt Sopart , Clement, Siegfried Burkhardt and Alex Kraskewitz formed the main line-up in the attack of the new champions, who, like vice 1. FC Köln, scored 60 goals. Josef Wolffram (Fortuna Düsseldorf) with 25 goals, Adolf Scheidt (Preußen Münster - 21 goals) and Jupp Derwall (Fortuna Düsseldorf - 19 goals) followed in the top scorer list.

In the final round of the German championship, Clement only stood out as a goalscorer in the opening game against Tasmania 1900 Berlin at the Rote Erde stadium in Dortmund in the 1-0 home win of Herne. In the 3-1 win in front of 42,000 spectators against Hamburger SV, Wandollek and Kraskewitz were responsible for the goals of the team from the industrial city on the Emscher. The following game year, 1959/60 , Clement opened with his Westfalia teammates on August 8, 1959 with the final of the West German Cup. In Bochum, however, Schwarz-Weiß Essen prevailed with 3-2 goals and also won the DFB Cup in 1959 on December 27 in Kassel with a 5-2 win against Borussia Neunkirchen. The defending champion started in the major league on 23 December. August 1959 with a 2-0 home win - one goal each from Wandollek and Clement - against Fortuna Düsseldorf. In the course of the round, however, with top players - in defense with Fritz Ewert , Georg Stollenwerk , Karl-Heinz Schnellinger , Hans Sturm and Leo Wilden as well as in the attack with Helmut Rahn , Christian Müller and Hans Schäfer - 1. FC Köln prevailed. Westfalia Herne came seven points behind the championship runner-up and thus made it back to the finals. Clement scored 13 goals in 29 league games. Herne could be satisfied with the home record of 23: 7 points, the negative away result of 14:16 points made the difference to the Cologne team. To have relegated Borussia Dortmund to third place with the two dangerous goalscorers Jürgen Schütz (31 goals) and Friedhelm Konietzka (25 goals) testified to the class of the Langner-Elf. With a 1-0 win in qualifying against Offenbach, Herne got into the final round . Herne lost the opening game 4: 5 at Karlsruher SC after Clement had brought his team 1: 0 in the 18th minute. With his second goal to the 2-2 final in the home game against Baden ended on June 18, 1960, the 1960 finals. In total, Gerhard Clement played thirteen finals between 1959 and 1960 and scored three goals.

In 1961 and 1962, with positions five and six, Herne was still in the top group in the west, but slipped back to 14th place in the table in the last league year of 1962/63 and thus lost the chance to be nominated for the new Bundesliga become. From 1957 to 1963, Clement had played 144 games for Westfalia Herne in the West Football League and scored 70 goals. He is thus the record scorer of the Westfalia in the Oberliga West.

Regionalliga West, until 1967

With coach Hans Hipp and a 3: 3 home draw against Duisburg 48/99, Westfalia Herne started the first round of Regionalliga West on August 4, 1963. Clement contributed a hit to this. With goalkeeper Wolfgang Scheid and midfielder Hans Sondermann , the center forward had new teammates at his side and with Hans Cieslarczyk an ex-SV Sodingen player who tried a new start after long injuries. Herne came in sixth in 1963/64, but far behind master Alemannia Aachen and the vice Wuppertaler SV. On the last match day, May 10, 1964, there was a 1-1 match between Herne and Fortuna Düsseldorf after an unintentional injury to Fortuna goalkeeper Görtz in the 79th minute by Gerhard Clement while jumping over the goalkeeper and brawls by spectators running onto the field and then to a game being abandoned.

In the next three rounds Herbert Burdenski swung the coaching scepter in Herne, but he could not prevent the fall into the rear midfield. Gerhard Clement said goodbye on the last match day of the 1966/67 round, on May 15, 1967, in the 3: 4 defeat at Bonner SC from the Regionalliga West and from Westfalia Herne. To say goodbye, he met again for a 1-0 lead for his home club. The team-mates included Wolfgang Scheid, Friedhelm Dick , Günter Graetsch and Gerd Knoth . Clement had completed 112 games in the Regionalliga for the blue-whites from 1963 to 1967 and scored 29 goals.

From the 1967/68 round he let his career in amateur football come to an end in the Association League Westphalia at Hammer SpVgg 03/04.

He then worked as a commercial clerk at the Bochum coal office.

literature

• Hans Dieter Baroth : Boys, Heaven is yours! The history of the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88474-332-5 .
• Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 .
• Ulrich Homann (Ed.): Farmer's heads, miners and a pascha. The history of the Regionalliga West 1963–1974. Volume 1, Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-345-7 .
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .