Helmut Zatopek

Helmut Zatopek
Personnel
birthday	February 4, 1932
date of death	January 29, 2016
Place of death	Gilching ,  Germany
Juniors
Years	station
	SV Bruckmühl
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1953-1955	FC Wacker Munich
1955-1957	Stuttgart Kickers	45 (3)
1957-1958	TSV 1860 Munich	8 (0)
1958-1960	TSG Ulm 1846	57 (9)
1960-1961	Borussia Dortmund	0 (0)
1961–1962	1. FC Pforzheim
1962-1964	KSV Hessen Kassel	25 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Helmut Zatopek (born February 4, 1932 - † January 29, 2016 in Gilching ) was a German football player . From 1955 to 1963, the defender played 135 competitive games in what was then the first-class soccer league south and scored twelve goals.

career

The player who came from SV Bruckmühl in the Rosenheim district gained his first high-class experience at FC Wacker Munich in the 2nd South League (1953/54) and 1st Amateur League South Bavaria (1954/55). With a contract for the 1955/56 round with the Stuttgarter Kickers , the 1.92 m tall Zatopek belonged to the Oberliga Süd for the first time. In his debut round in the league, he made 16 league appearances under coach Karl-Heinz Grindler and at the side of players like Hans Eberle , Rolf Geiger and Siegfried Kronenbitter ; the Kickers could just keep the class with the 14th place. In his second year, 1956/57, Zatopek was a member of the regular team of Grindler's successor Oswald Pfau with 29 missions and three goals . With the “blues”, Zatopek with teammates like Herbert Dienelt and Helmut Rühle again just managed to stay in the league with 14th place. After two rounds with 45 league appearances and three goals, he signed a new contract with TSV 1860 Munich for the 1957/58 season.

The Munich “Löwen” had just returned from the 2nd division south to the upper division. Under coach Hans Hipp , the personnel were first tested to find the right team. Zatopek sometimes played a half-forward, sometimes a side runner. Alfons Stemmer (28-5) established himself as a co-deciding high performer in the stopper position in the World Cup system at that time . The runner row mostly appeared with Wilhelm Luther (25-0), Stemmer and Martin Müller (26-1). 1860 Munich finished sixth at the end of the round and Zatopek had to be content with eight league games. After a year in Munich, he signed with the league promoted TSG Ulm 1846 for the 1958/59 season; “Löwen” colleague Karl Dornhecker also went to the “Spatzen”.

The team of coach Kurt Koch started on August 17, 1958 with a 3-2 away win at VfB Stuttgart. The defensive of Ulm started in the formation with goalkeeper Manfred Paul , the defenders Helmut Stocker and Hermann Gorniak and the runner row with Dornhecker, Zatopek and Georg Buck. Against his previous club Munich 1860 Zatopek got 3: 1 points (2: 2, 2: 0). In addition to the defensive, the opponents only scored 37 goals in 30 rounds and thus the orienteering returnees had the third best defense in the south, the two attackers Siegfried Kronenbitter (29-8) and Manfred Ruoff (28-9) were the guarantors of the Relegation. Ulm was in 13th place and defender Zatopek had scored three goals in 28 appearances. In his second year in Ulm, 1959/60, Zatopek increased his personal record to 29 appearances and six goals. After the 29th matchday, the team of the new coach Hans Pilz was tied with Viktoria Aschaffenburg (20:30 points each) in 14th and 15th place respectively. In front of 20,000 spectators on April 30, 1960, a 1-1 home draw was enough thanks to the better goal difference to keep the league. Zatopek broke the tents in Ulm after 57 league appearances with nine goals and signed a new contract with Borussia Dortmund for the 1960/61 round .

In the black and yellow from Borsigplatz, the defensive player under coach Max Merkel fared like the other newcomer Bernhard Wessel : He was in the successful round, BVB won the runner-up in the Oberliga West and moved into the final of the German championship one, not used in point game operations.

For the 1961/62 season, Zatopek moved back to southern Germany, he signed with 1. FC Pforzheim in the 2. League South. Under coach Gustav Mohn , Pforzheim fought an exciting battle with Hessen Kassel and Ulm in 1846 for promotion to the Oberliga Süd. The final 2: 3 defeat on June 3, 1962 at FC Hanau after a 2: 0 half-time lead cost the team from the "Goldstadt" promotion. Zatopek landed with teammates like goalkeeper Franz Mlinaric, Willi Heinrich, Rolf Neureuther, Dieter Rosanowski, Hermann Sodermanns and Oswald Traub in 3rd place . Champion and newly promoted Hessen Kassel signed the 30-year-old veteran for the last season of the old first-class Oberliga Süd, 1962/63, and Zatopek moved to Northern Hesse.

When KSV Hessen Kassel also had Horst Assmy , Ernst Kuster and Wolfgang Simon new contracts signed. Despite the reinforcements, the team of promotion coach Willibald Hahn made a classic false start with 0: 8 points and 1:18 goals after four match days. Zatopek made his debut on the fourth match day, September 9, 1962, in a 5-0 defeat at Bayern Hof in the Kassel league team. Then Hahn was replaced and replaced by the former KSV active Walter Müller . From then on, graduate sports teacher Müller acted with center runner Zatopek, mostly supported by the outside runners Hans Michel and Hans Alt , in the row of runners that gave support. With successes against VfB Stuttgart (4: 2), Karlsruher SC (2: 0), Schwaben Augsburg (4: 1), 1. FC Nürnberg (1: 0, after a 0: 9 home defeat in the first half of the season), Eintracht Frankfurt (1: 0), BC Augsburg (5: 0) and a 2: 1 in the final catch-up game on May 5, 1963 against FC Bayern Hof, Kassel was still 10th in the table. Zatopek had played in 25 league games for Kassel.

Eight days later, on May 12, the home game against future Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt took place in the South German Cup. In front of 18,000 spectators in the Auestadion, Kassel prevailed 2-1. Center runner Zatopek had successfully put the dangerous Eintracht center forward Erwin Stein on the chain as head of defense . The first game in the DFB Cup against Wuppertaler SV took place on June 9th . It ended in Kassel 2-2 after extra time. Also in the replay on July 27th, Zatopek led the Kassel defense as a middle runner in the stadium at the zoo . With the game and goal strong inside trio Manfred Reichert , Günter Augustat and Emil Meisen , the Oberbergische now prevailed 3-0.

Eight days later, on August 4, 1963, Hessen Kassel started the 1963/64 regional round with new entry Heinrich Dittel as a stopper. The newcomer from Aschaffenburg immediately established himself as a regular player and new head of defense and the "Lions" won the championship in the south. Zatopek was not used in the Regionalliga 1963/64 and ended his career in the summer of 1964. He spent his old age with his family in Gilching, Bavaria .

literature

• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Horst Biese, Herbert Peiler: Crosses, goals and parades. 100 years of football in Kassel. AGON Sportverlag. Kassel 1993. ISBN 3-928562-37-1 .
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .
• Gernot Otto: dreams, titles and trophies. 100 years of 1. FC Pforzheim. Bath pressure Karlsruhe. 1996.

Web links

• Helmut Zatopek in the database of fussballdaten.de
• Helmut Zatopek in the database of the Kickers Archive