Hans-Joachim Otto (soccer player)

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Hans-Joachim Otto (born May 27, 1937 in Eisfeld , Thuringia ; † January 6, 2020 in Jena ) was a football player in the GDR Oberliga , where he played for SC Motor Jena and FC Carl Zeiss Jena . Otto was a multiple GDR junior national player.

Athletic career

Young players

Otto began playing football with the local company sports community (BSG) Lokomotive Eisfeld. At the age of 17, he moved from Motor Eisfeld in 1954 to BSG Motor Jena, which was converted into the Motor Sports Club in November of the same year. Also in 1954 Otto was appointed to the squad of the newly formed junior national team. On April 11, 1954, he played as a half-right striker in the first official GDR junior international game (GDR - France 3-1). By 1956 he was used in a total of ten junior international matches. In the encounter between the GDR and the Netherlands (1-1) he scored his only international goal.

DDR-Oberliga

Otto made his debut in the GDR league for SC Motor Jena on September 22, 1957 as a replacement for Karl Schnieke in the 18th season point game SC Lok Leipzig - SC Motor (1-0) on the position of the center forward. Since Schnieke then came back to the team, there were no further appearances for Otto in the league in 1957. He won a regular place in the league team only in the second half of the 1958 season, when long-time defender Georg Buschner had ended his playing career. Otto took over his position as right defender and kept this place until the end of his career. Until 1962 he was always part of the regular team, after which his career was marked by numerous failures.

In the 1960 season he played the most league games of his career with 24 appearances and was also exceptionally in the final of the GDR Cup as a left defender, which SC Motor won 3-2 after extra time against SC Empor Rostock. Otto won his second title in the 1962/63 season (in the meantime GDR football was played in the summer-spring rhythm) when SC Motor Jena became GDR football champions for the first time. However, it was also the first season in which Otto was no longer regularly used. He contributed to the championship with only 14 of 26 played point games. Five years after his last appearance in the junior national team, Otto came to another international test in the competition for the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1961/62 . Surprisingly, SC Motor Jena made it to the semi-finals, where it was eliminated in two games against Spanish representatives Atlético Madrid (1: 0/4: 0). Of the eight EC games played, Otto played six games, including the two semi-finals.

End of career

The 1964/65 season turned out to be the low point of his sports career, he only made six appearances in the major league. The fact that 1965/66 defender Heinz Hergert was out for a long time, it owed Otto that he was able to play the majority of the league games again in this season with 19 missions. This season also saw the spin-off of the soccer section from the sports club into the newly founded FC Carl Zeiss Jena. Otto completed his last season as a top division player in 1966/67. Between the 1st and the 9th game day he was used again in seven point games. In his last league game Hallescher FC Chemie - FC Carl Zeiss Jena (2-1) on November 5, 1966, he was as usual as a right defender on the field. This encounter was Otto's 181st competitive game for the Jena, including 138 league games in which he scored two goals as a defensive player.

After the end of his competitive sports career, Otto was still active in the third-rate district league team of FC Carl Zeiss III from 1967 to 1976 , in the first few years as a player-coach. Otto spent his last years as a football player from 1976 to 1980 at BSG Chemie Jena , which he helped to advance to the district league in 1977.

Otto died on January 6, 2020 in Jena.

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personal data
SURNAME Otto, Hans-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisfeld , Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 2020
Place of death Jena , Germany