Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin

Grapenthin saves against Rainer Lisiewicz in the league game in 1975 against Lok Leipzig

Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin (born September 2, 1943 in Wolgast ) is a former German football player. Grapenthin, who was called "Sprotte" because of his North German origins, was goalkeeper in 308 games in the GDR Oberliga at FC Carl Zeiss Jena between 1966 and 1985 .

National career

Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin, also a trained bricklayer, came to the university city of Jena from the third-rate district division BSG Motor Wolgast , where he had already played nine games in the second-rate GDR league as a goalkeeper in the 1963/64 season as a 20-year-old . In his early days at FC Carl Zeiss, the 1.85 meter tall Grapenthin was only second choice and was mostly only used in the reserve team. In the first seven years he guarded the goal of the league team only 33 times. It was not until the 1974/75 season that he was able to prevail against Wolfgang Blochwitz and played all 26 games of the season. From March 4, 1978 to March 30, 1985 Grapenthin played in 186 top division point games in Jena without interruption.

The FDGB Cup victory in the 1979/80 season is his first and only title as a regular goalkeeper. On 17 May 1980 Jena defeated the Thuringian archrival FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt with 3: 1 after extra time . In the Jena championship years 1968 and 1970 his contribution was small with only three games and in the cup successes in 1972 and 1974 his long-time rival in the club, Wolfgang Blochwitz, received preference in the finals from Jena coach Hans Meyer .

In the 1980/81 season, Grapenthin celebrated its greatest success in international club football, when FC Carl Zeiss also made it into the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup thanks to the outstanding performance of its goalkeeper . In the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, however, the GDR representative lost 2-1 to Dinamo Tbilissi from the Soviet Union. In 1980 and 1981 Grapenthin was voted footballer of the year in the GDR .

In March 1985, Perry Bräutigam replaced him in the goal of FC Carl Zeiss. When he ended his competitive sports career in the same year, he had 412 competitive games for the first team of FC Carl Zeiss Jena - 308 of them in the league, 47 in the FDGB Cup and 47 European Cup games.

International career

After two U-23 internationals and one use in the B national team, Grapenthin played his first A international game on July 31, 1975 in Ottawa in a 7-1 win over Canada. Up until his last international match on October 10, 1981, he was in the goal of the GDR national team 21 times. The defeat at the farewell to Poland also meant the non-qualification for the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982.

The highlight of his career in the GDR jersey was winning the gold medal with the GDR's soccer team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal . As number two behind Jürgen Croy , the Grapenthin only played ten minutes in the quarter-final against France (4-0). Regardless of this, he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze for this success .

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 447, p. 168.
• Andreas Baingo , Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , pp. 300, 321.

Web links

Commons : Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin in the database of weltfussball.de
• Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin in the database of the German Football Association
• Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin Scoring Game Statistics at RSSSF.com (English)
• Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin portrait at fcc-supporters.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the honor for the Olympic team of the GDR. Awarded high government awards. Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze. In: New Germany . September 10, 1976, p. 4 , accessed on April 10, 2018 (online at ZEFYS - newspaper portal of the Berlin State Library , free registration required).