Gerhard Weigel (soccer player)

Gerhard Weigel (born August 27, 1927 - † May 22, 2014 ) was a German soccer player and sports journalist. From 1949 to 1953 he played for KWU / Turbine Erfurt and Turbine Weimar in the GDR Oberliga , the top division in GDR football .

Athletic career

When the East Zone Football League (later GDR Oberliga) entered its first season in September 1949, the company sports association (BSG) KWU Erfurt was one of the fourteen teams . The team's squad included 22-year-old striker Gerhard Weigel. Coach Hans Carl offered Weigel in the first league game, and he scored the first goal in Erfurt in the zone league with the goal to make it 1-1 in the away game against ZSG Altenburg . After that, however, only two more league appearances followed. On the 3rd match day of the 1950/51 season, in which Erfurt took on as BSG Turbine, the new coach Ludwig tried again with Weigel and let him play in midfield. Although Weigel scored another goal, it remained with the one attempt. After the first half of the season Weigel moved to league competitor Turbine Weimar, where 14 of the 17 remaining point games were used in attack and scored three goals. At the end of the season Turbine Weimar had to relegate to the second-rate GDR league . There Weigel developed into one of the most important players of the team, he only missed two of the 22 league games and with his 16 goals became the top scorer of the BSG. For the 1952/53 season he returned to Turbine Erfurt, but could not prevail there again in the league team. In the 32 point games he was used irregularly, only in 12 games and scored only one goal as a striker. At the end of the season he was almost 36 years old and ended his career as a competitive athlete. He could look back on 30 league games with five goals and 20 games in the GDR league with 16 goals. As a recreational footballer, he still played for the third-class team of SG Dynamo Erfurt . Later he remained connected to football, first as a youth coach, then for many years as a sports journalist for the Thuringian local press.

literature

• German sport echo : born 1950–1990. ISSN  0323-8628
• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 516.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , pp. 312, 345.

Web links

• Gerhard Weigel in the database of the German Football Association