Hermann Springer (soccer player)

Hermann Springer , nickname "Mandi" (* December 4, 1908 ; † November 1978 ) was a Swiss football player who, as an active member of Grasshopper Club Zurich, won the Swiss championship four times and the Swiss Cup seven times .

career

Clubs, 1922 to 1946

Hermann Springer's football career began in the school team of FC Blue Stars Zurich in 1922. At Blue Stars, he also made the transition from the youth to the senior department. In terms of football, the “Hoppers” dominated the FC in Zurich, Young Fellows and Blue Stars followed by some distance. Although Blue Stars was never able to seriously compete for the Swiss championship, the young talent developed into a remarkable master. In the 1929/30 round, Springer was 20 years old, he made his debut on October 6, 1929 in Prague in the Swiss national football team . In the 5-0 defeat against Czechoslovakia, he was used in the attack of the "Nati". Once he moved into the final round with his hometown club, 1930/31, over a second place in the Eastern group, where he finished fourth behind GCZ, Urania Geneva and FC La Chaux-de-Fonds . After the round of 1932/33 - he had completed five international matches for Blue Stars - he joined the BSC Young Boys for the first single-track all-year championship in 1933/34 and finished ninth with the black and yellow from the Wankdorf Stadium with 30 points. Urania Geneva, FC Zurich and its ex-club, Blue Stars, were relegated. For the 1934/35 round, however, “Mandi” Springer returned to his hometown of Zurich, he joined GC, the blue-and-white team from the Hardturm Stadium .

When coach Karl Rappan took over the sporting management of the "Hoppers" from the 1935/36 round, the jumper, who now mostly acted as a right side runner, experienced his greatest sporting successes. He won the Swiss championship in 1937, 1939, 1942 and 1943 and also the Swiss Cup in 1937, 1938, 1940 to 1943 and 1946. On May 2, 1937, after a six-year break, he celebrated his comeback in the national team. In the rounds of 1936/37, 1941/42 and 1942/43 "Mandi" Springer belonged to the GC double teams. He achieved success alongside his teammates Willy Huber , Severino Minelli , Sirio Vernati , Lauro Amadò , Hans-Peter Friedländer and Alfred Bickel . As a reactivated senior at the age of 37, he experienced his last title win in the Cup final on April 22, 1946 against Lausanne Sports with a 3-0 win. Coach Rappan had brought him back to competitive sport especially for the duel against Lausanne's left winger, Georges Aeby . 19 days later, on May 11th, the senior made his 37th and last international match for the national team before finally ending his playing career in the summer of 1946.

National team, 1929 to 1946

"Mandi Springer" made his first five appearances in the Swiss national football team from 1929 to 1931 as a player for Blue Stars Zurich. It was not until the narrow 1-0 defeat against Germany in Zurich on May 2, 1937, when he came back for the first time as a GC player for the "Nati". When four months later, on September 19, 1937, Karl Rappan, his club coach at the "Hoppers", also took over the national team, Springer belonged to the "block" of seven GC players - Huber, Minelli, Weiler, Springer, Vernati, Bickel, Rupf - with which the Austrian introduced his defensive concept with the "bolt" in the national team. The appearances against Italy - 2: 2 on October 31, 1937 -, Germany - 1: 1 on February 6, 1938 - and the convincing 4: 0 success on April 3, 1938 in Basel against Czechoslovakia clearly spoke in favor of the personnel determination and the correctness of the tactical measure taken by the coach. With a 2-1 win against Portugal in Milan, the Confederates qualified for the 1938 World Cup in France. In the international match played immediately before the start of the tournament on May 21st in the home stadium Hardturm, the "Nati" set an exclamation mark against England with a 2-1 victory. In Paris on June 4, Springer and his teammates defied Reich coach Sepp Herberger's team in a game against Germany with a 1-1 draw after extra time. The replay on June 9 was decided by André Abegglen with his two goals to make it 4-2. The combination GC / Servette, reinforced with Lauro Amado from FC Lugano , had eliminated a tournament favorite. Without Georges Aeby and Severino Minelli, Switzerland lost the game in Lille with 0-2 goals against Hungary in the next round. It was the 19th international match for "Mandi" Springer. After the World Cup tournament he was also a member of the teams that won 3-1 against Hungary in April 1939, 3-1 against Italy in November 1939 and 2-1 against Germany on February 1, 1942 in Vienna . The 37-year-old ended his career with his 37th international match against England on May 11, 1946 in London.

Springer, a businessman by profession, later managed the fortunes of a large company as director for many years.

literature

• Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
• Swiss Football League (Philippe Guggisberg), 75 years of the Swiss Football League, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9523556-0-2
• International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), Switzerland (1905–1940), international matches