Gerhard Neuser

Gerhard Neuser (born October 29, 1938 in Wilgersdorf ; † August 7, 1993 ) was a German football player .

He began his career in the youth of today's TuS Wilnsdorf / Wilgersdorf. In 1958 he switched to Sportfreunde Siegen . When he won the title of German amateur champion in 1955 against Bad Homburg, he was not yet in the championship eleven of Siegen. In contrast, he was already one of the top performers of Sportfreunde in the Regionalliga in the 1963/1964 season. Between 1965 and 1970 he was a player for FC Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga after Fritz Szepan had persuaded him to move. For the Knappen he played 143 games and scored 19 goals. With them he moved into the DFB Cup final in 1969 . A commemorative football tournament is held regularly in his honor.

Career / highlights of the career

Spfor victories

In the 1960/61 season Neuser won the championship in the Association League Westphalia group 2 and rose to the 2nd League West . In the first year in the 2nd league, 1961/62, the Sportfreunde took eighth place and the technician had underlined his scoring risk with 16 goals in 26 league appearances alongside teammates Peter Blusch , Paul Haase and Albert Kühn . In the final of the amateur country cup on May 20, 1962 in Siegen against the Middle Rhine, Neuser decided the game for Westphalia in the 71st minute with a goal in front of 15,000 spectators. Club mate Kühn was also part of the Westphalian selection attack . In his second year in the 2nd league, 1962/63, he reached fifth place with the team of coach Herbert Schäfer and won the top scorer's crown in the 2nd league west with 19 goals. Siegen was thus qualified for the newly introduced Football Regionalliga West . Neuser had played 52 competitive games in two rounds in the 2nd division and scored 35 goals.

In the opening season of the Bundesliga 1963/64, Sportfreunde played victories in the Regionalliga West. The midfield technician, who made his debut in the amateur national team on March 5, 1960 (team - mates in the game in London against England, among others: Jürgen Kurbjuhn , Herbert Schäfer , Carl-Heinz Rühl , Willi Schulz , Alfred Glenski and Willibert Kremer ), was certainly Sportfreunde is one of the most valuable players in the Sportfreunde team alongside the A and amateur national team and later coach Herbert Schäfer, the half-striker Paul Haase and the defender Peter Blusch . Neuser had scored 15 goals in 33 league games. The relegation in the Regionalliga West was just missed by the sports fans. With the achieved 29:47 points it only reached 18th place. The down-to-earth newcomer went back to the amateur camp for a year with his club for the 1964/65 season before moving to FC Schalke 04.

After the 4-0 success on June 5, 1963 in front of 15,000 spectators in domestic victories in the first international match of the amateur national team against Japan, it was noted in the sports magazine "that the little tricky half-forward has now grown into the role of Herbert Schäfer in the national team, whose post as captain he had also received this time. ”In September 1963 he had also participated as a service provider in the two Olympic qualifying games against the GDR. The DFB amateurs (Martinschledde - Michel, Liebich - Birkhold, Zott, Kunzmann - Beyer, Hönig, Zettelmeier, Neuser, Leydecker) lost 3-0 in the games in Chemnitz and on September 22, 1963 in Hanover after a deserved 2: 1 victory in the grand total.

With the 4-2 victory against the Netherlands on June 2, 1965, Gerhard Neuser ended his career in the amateur national team, of which he had become captain, with a total of 20 missions. He contributed two goals to this win.

FC Schalke 04

In the summer of 1965, Schalke 04 were at the end of their game, and certainly not financially competitive. In the second year of the Bundesliga 1964/65 only the last place was achieved; only by increasing to 18 clubs one remained in the league. Absolute performers as Reinhard Libuda , Willi Schulz , Egon Horst , Waldemar Gerhardt , Willi Koslowski , Hans Nowak and other players like Heinz Crawatzo , Gyula Toth and Manfred Berz left Schalke to this disaster round. With the hard worker Fritz Langner and ambitious players from the amateur camp, the league should still be managed in the 1965/66 season. Among the newcomers, the 20-time amateur national player Neuser was already the celebrity. In addition, the young Klaus Fichtel from Arminia Ickern should be a real stroke of luck. But Heinz Pliska , Josef Elting and the ex-Herner Alfred Pyka , who came via the TSV 1860 Munich station , became regular players in this emergency community . The achievements of Manfred Kreuz with nine goals and Günter Herrmann with seven goals contributed not insignificantly to the success of relegation . Gerhard Neuser had scored four goals in 32 games and convinced with his talent for combination, technique and tireless commitment. Everyone was happy about the saving 14th place at the end of the season.

The next two rounds could also be achieved, but no progress could be made out. Then they brought the "prodigal son" Reinhard Libuda back to Schalke for the round in 1968/69 . Since the Austrian international Franz Hasil could also be signed for midfield, decidedly higher expectations were cherished. The previous coach Günter Brocker could not do justice to that. He was released on November 17, 1968 and Rudi Gutendorf hoped for Schalke. At the end of the lap, at least 7th place was taken, and the descent had really nothing to do with. The real highlight of the round was the entry into the DFB Cup final on June 14, 1969 in Frankfurt am Main against the new German champions, FC Bayern Munich . The final was then lost with 1: 2 goals, but the successes in the previous rounds against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen , SV Alsenborn , Alemannia Aachen and 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the semi-finals in two games were still great performances that you can count on Schalke had waited and hoped in vain for years. Gerhard Neuser also played a key role in this success.

For the round 1969/70 you bet on youth national players. With Rolf Rüssmann , Jürgen Sobieray and Klaus Scheer , three players from the German UEFA youth team were signed in 1969. Their two teammates Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeneß got contracts with FC Bayern Munich. In the Bundesliga, however, there was no improvement. You had to be content with the 9th rank. The majority of the games in the European Cup Winners 'Cup (FC Bayern competed in the Champions' Cup) compensated the fans. Against Shamrock Rovers , IFK Norrköping and Dinamo Zagreb they had been able to prevail until the semi-finals. But then the English professionals from Manchester City were a size too big. This was especially true in Manchester. There was a clear 5: 1 rejection after the narrow 1-0 home win. The Bell , Lee and Summerbee were more clearly superior to Neuser and Co. than had been imagined after the home success of April 1, 1970. But overall, the good performance outweighed these European games. Gerhard Neuser also played seven of eight games in his last season for Schalke in these international challenges. In his Schalke time, Neuser completed a total of 143 Bundesliga games until 1970 and scored 19 goals.

Completion of the career

After his return to his hometown club in Siegen in 1970, Gerhard Neuser was able to celebrate promotion to the Regionalliga West in 1971/72 through the championship in the Verbandsliga Westfalen and then, at the age of 34, played another class round in the then second division in 1972/73 . With Dieter Mietz , Alfred Seiler and Gerhard Scholtyschik (he scored 24 goals) he also had very good teammates, but his performance in 31 league games with three goals in reaching 7th place in the table (39:29 points) was the incentive for sports fans simply to get everything out of yourself. His final round was a reflection of his skills over many years of top football.

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 .
• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's football. The encyclopedia. Sportverlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00857-8 , p. 459.
• Georg Röwekamp: The myth is alive. The history of FC Schalke 04. Verlag Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2003. ISBN 3-89533-332-8
• "An honoring commemoration for the dead", Siegerländer Heimatkalender 1994, p. 40, 69th edition, publisher Siegerländer Heimat- und Geschichtsverein eV, Verlag für Heimatliteratur

Individual evidence

1. ^ German sports club for football statistics (ed.): West Chronicle. Football in West Germany 1958-1963. May 2013. pp. 166, 196, 220
2. ↑ Karn, Rehberg: Spiellexikon 1963-1994. P. 359.
3. ↑ Sports magazine. Volume 18. No. 23 / A. Date June 10, 1963. p. 21