Gerhard Kaufhold

Gerhard Kaufhold (born December 2, 1928 ; † October 4, 2009 in Offenbach-Rumpenheim ) was a German soccer player who played for the majority of his career with the Offenbacher Kickers and was once a member of the German national soccer team in 1954 .

Kickers Offenbach, 1946–1964

Beginning

In autumn 1946 Gerhard Kaufhold moved from SSC Juno 1921 Burg from the Hessian Lahn-Dill district to Bieberer Berg to Kickers Offenbach . Coach Paul Oßwald built the talent very carefully. About dosed missions in the rounds 1946/47 to 1948/49 he led the fast man on the right wing in the round 1949/50 in the regular formation.

Regular players / top performers

Gerhard Kaufhold experienced his first title win with the OFC in the Oberliga Süd in the 1948/49 season, when he played eleven games with seven goals. In the final round of the German football championship in 1949, the South German champions Kickers Offenbach failed in the semifinals on June 26, 1949, with Kaufhold on the right wing, with a 1: 2 defeat at the vice-champions of the Oberliga Süd, VfR Mannheim . The VfR prevailed on July 10, 1949 with a 3-2 win after extra time against Borussia Dortmund in the final of the German championship and won the championship trophy in the square city on the Rhine and Neckar.

With the third place in the table in the 1949/50 round, the OFC moved into the finals again. After successes over Tennis Borussia Berlin , Hamburger SV and the success in the semifinals over Preußen Dellbrück , the team around the outstanding striker Horst Buhtz reached the final, which was played on June 25, 1950 against VfB Stuttgart . The protégés of coach Georg Wurzer prevailed with 2-1 goals against Offenbach. Gerhard Kaufhold had played all games in the final round.

In the year after the Football World Cup in Switzerland in 1954 , Gerhard Kaufhold reached the peak of his footballing performance. He had matured to become a director, combining speed, technique and goal danger in one person. He completed all 30 games in the Oberliga Süd and scored 17 goals. Offenbach won the championship in the south and moved back into the finals. The men from Bieberer Berg failed in the games against the later champion Rot-Weiss Essen .

By winning the runner-up in 1957, Offenbach was again in the finals with coach Paul Oßwald (1946-58 in Offenbach in office). Against the defending champion Borussia Dortmund they lost 1: 2 goals. In the 1958/59 round, Gerhard Kaufhold experienced the first change of coach at OFC: Oßwald changed the Main side and took over Eintracht Frankfurt . The Yugoslav Bogdan Cuvaj succeeded him on the Bieberer Berg. After the runner-up in the south, the legendary final of the German soccer championship against Eintracht Frankfurt took place on June 28, 1959 in Berlin. Eintracht became German champions with a 5-3 win after extra time. Gerhard Kaufhold suffered the second defeat in a final of the German soccer championship after 1950. With the seventh place the captain of the OFC finished the final round 1962/63 of the Oberliga Süd. He had played 396 games for Offenbach from 1946 to 1963, scoring 112 goals.

End of the playing career

With the home game on May 3, 1964 against KSV Hessen Kassel - KSV became champions before FC Bayern Munich - Gerhard "Gerd" Kaufhold ended his playing career with Offenbacher Kickers after 18 years. Due to the controversial non-nomination of Offenbach for the Bundesliga from 1963/64, he celebrated his departure from competitive football in the Regionalliga Süd . As a 35-year-old veteran , he represented the colors of the Kickers again in 30 games, together with Hermann Nuber , Siegfried Gast and Sigfried Held .

National team / selection games, 1950–1954

National coach Sepp Herberger carried out two representative games on November 11 and 12, 1950 in Ludwigshafen and Frankfurt with the Southwest against South I and South II against West teams. Gerhard Kaufhold stormed as a right winger in the team of the south, which defeated the west with 5: 4 goals in Frankfurt. It was the final sighting of the national coach for the first international match after the Second World War , which was played on November 22, 1950 in Stuttgart against Switzerland. The 22-year-old was not nominated for this national team game.

Kaufhold made his debut in a DFB team on April 14, 1951 in Karlsruhe at a game between the B-country team and Switzerland. Together with his club mates Kurt Schreiner and Horst Buhtz (VfB Mühlburg), however, he could not prevent the 2-0 defeat. On April 20, 1952, another appointment to the southern selection followed.

It was only after the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland that the Offenbacher was invited back by the DFB: From November 22 to 29, 1954, a national team course was held at the Grünberg Sports School in preparation for the international match against England on December 1 in London. Since only the three world champions Werner Kohlmeyer , Werner Liebrich and Josef Posipal were available, four newcomers got their probation chance in the storm: Gerhard Kaufhold (thus the first national player of the OFC) and Alfred Beck as wingers, Michael Pfeiffer and Jupp Derwall as half-strikers. Uwe Seeler played his second international match in the middle of the storm. The non-rehearsed formation lost the encounter with 1: 3 goals. Kaufhold was already playing the role of playmaker as a half-striker for the OFC's red and whites. He used the fast winger Engelbert Kraus with templates. He had left his time on the sidelines behind in Offenbach. He shaped the game in midfield and brought the strikers into position. Winning the championship in the Oberliga Süd in 1955 spoke for the tactical measure taken by coach Paul Oßwald.

particularities

Gerhard Kaufhold experienced the "times of hunger" after the Second World War as a footballer for Kickers Offenbach. In the book about the Oberliga Süd from Klartext Verlag in Essen, he is quoted as follows:

“How often did we go to the country for two or three sacks of potatoes. And if a rural host offered us a good meal and a drink, then let's go. The main thing was that there was something to eat. "

The trips to East Asia in 1953 with ten games in Hong Kong, Japan, India and the Philippines, the trip to the Soviet Union and a major trip to the USA were outstanding moments in the career of the later honorary captain and member of the OFC's honorary council .

Profession and private life

Professionally, Kaufhold quickly settled in Offenbach. The company Neuroth & Kaufhold stood for sweets and spirits. Towards the end of his footballing career, he switched to the services of the city of Offenbach. He became administrative director of the garden and cemetery office.

Kaufhold was married and had two daughters.

Web links

• The first Offenbach national team player died at the age of 80. In: op-online.de. October 6, 2009, accessed February 2, 2018 . 

swell

• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .
• Klaus Querengässer: The German football championship. Part 2: 1948–1963 (= AGON Sportverlag statistics. Vol. 29). AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-89609-107-7 .
• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
• Raphael Keppel : Germany's international football matches. Documentation from 1908–1989. Sport- und Spielverlag Hitzel, Hürth 1989, ISBN 3-9802172-4-8 .