Hans-Jürgen Köper

Hans-Jürgen Köper (mostly just Jürgen ~, born August 29, 1951 in Bochum ) is a former German soccer player who, as an active member of VfL Bochum, played 143 games in the Bundesliga between 1971 and 1979 and scored 17 goals.

career

The youth player Hans-Jürgen Köper came from the district club SG Preußen Ehrenfeld in 1968 to the A-youth of VfL Bochum, who played in the regional soccer league West . With the Bochum A-Juniors he moved in 1969 after winning the West German championship and a 2-0 success in the semi-finals against Hertha BSC in the first-ever final of the German A-Juniors championship. On July 13, 1969, the playmaker's hope and his teammates won the German championship with a 5-3 win - after a 3-0 half-time deficit - against 1. FC Saarbrücken.

In the 1970/71 round he made his debut by substituting coach Hermann Eppenhoff on the first day of the game in the West Regional Football League. In the second half, the young player was substituted on for Hans Grieger on the offensive in the 4-1 home win on August 16, 1970 against Hamborn 07 . Köper completed 26 regional league games in his first season in the senior division and scored five goals. The VfL team won the championship in the west around the top performers Hans-Werner Hartl (18 goals), Werner Krämer and Hans Walitza (28 goals) with equal points over Fortuna Düsseldorf and one point ahead of Wuppertaler SV. In the Bundesliga promotion round, the team from the stadium on Castroper Straße prevailed with 14: 2 points against the competitors VfL Osnabrück, FK Pirmasens, Karlsruher SC and Tasmania 1900 Berlin and rose to the Bundesliga.

In the first Bundesliga year 1971/72, Köper made 17 appearances and scored two goals. In Heinz Höher's first coaching year , 1972/73, he was part of the team with 32 missions and three hits, as did Werner Balte , Hans-Günter Etterich and Michael Lameck . In the following round he had to struggle for the first time with protracted injuries and could only be available for VfL in nine games. In the 1975/76 season he played all 34 round matches with goalkeeper Werner Scholz and field players Michael Lameck, Franz-Josef Tenhagen and Heinz-Werner Eggeling and scored four goals. In the away game on February 5, 1977 against MSV Duisburg, he suffered a broken tibia and fibula after a collision with Detlef Pirsig and so the round was over for him after 20 missions. The consequences of the injury even meant that Köper could not play a competitive game for Bochum for the entire 1977/78 round. In the 1978/79 series, the VfL home grown and hopeful of the successor to the former playmaker Werner Krämer tried again a comeback. It worked well with the first six match days, but after his substitution on October 27, 1978 at half-time in the game against Werder Bremen - he was replaced by Hermann Gerland - due to recurring complaints from the old injuries (broken leg, ankle chipped off), ended Hans-Jürgen Köper started his playing career at the age of 27.

In 1980 the trained tax advisor was declared a sports disabled person. Since then he has operated several large gambling halls in Bochum and is involved in others.

literature

• Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 .
• Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 4: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 2. Goals, crises & a successful trio 1975–1987. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-89784-133-9 .
• Heinz Formann, Deep in the West. The phenomenon VfL Bochum, Klartext-Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-88474-177-2 .
• Markus Franz, The boys from Castroper Strasse. The history of VfL Bochum, Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2005, ISBN 3-89533-506-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Köper - player profile. Retrieved June 2, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Kicker-Sportmagazin, No. 13, February 10, 1977, p. 9.