Jakob Müller (soccer player, 1917)

Jakob Müller (born April 8, 1917 ; † 20th or 21st century) was a German football player. The midfielder and defender played 174 point games (1 goal) for VfR Mannheim from 1946 to 1952 in the Oberliga Süd . In 1949 he became German champion with the “Monnemer Lawn Sportsmen” .

Player career

Beginning and interruption

The "farmer from Lützelsachsen ", today a district of Weinheim , took third place in the district class of Unterbaden West with FV 09 Weinheim in the 1938/39 season. As Wehrmacht relatives he fell in the Second World War in captivity and was to Canada in an internment camp , the camp 133 spent. There he met in the following years with Philipp Henninger , Hermann Jöckel , Ernst Langlotz , Rudolf de la Vigne and Herbert Senck several Mannheimer (exception "Bella" de la Vigne) know footballers who had been captured together in North Africa and with whom he was Camp often kicked together. At the end of 1946 he was released and quickly found his way to the square city to the VfR Mannheim, as he had especially befriended Philipp Henninger in "Camp 133" in Canada. There he met the individual inmates again and together they laced their soccer shoes at VfR. This group of players quickly became known as "the Canadians".

Continuation in the upper league

From the 1945/46 season onwards, VfR Mannheim belonged to the newly created Oberliga Süd, which was the highest German division until the Bundesliga was introduced , and Jakob “Jackl” Müller soon drew attention to himself in this - a remarkable achievement for someone who only started at 29 had made his debut in first-class league football. He probably played his first league game on December 22, 1946, the 13th matchday, in a 0-0 home draw against SpVgg Fürth. Müller and Henninger and Philipp Rohr formed the host's runner row. Since with goalkeeper Hermann Jöckel (January 1947), de la Vigne (June 1947) and Kurt Keuerleber (July 1947) three other top performers made their debut in this round, was the 12th place in 1946/47 with 35:41 points Personnel basis laid for the further sporting upward development of lawn athletes. In the second league year of "Jackl" Müller, 1947/48, the trend continued, the VfR reached the 8th place with 43:33 points and the goal danger of the new attacker Ernst Löttke had paid off with 19 goals.

At the end of the season, however, it was less the sporting events than the currency reform , i.e. the conversion of the worthless Reichsmark to the DM on June 21, 1948, for some football clubs for financial turmoil, because although the DFB only received the status of "contract player" with its Legalized re-establishment in January 1950, Oberliga kickers were no longer pure amateurs even before that. The state-owned Toto GmbH was founded in May 1948 in Württemberg-Baden, among other things in order to be able to assist the clubs . On their first betting slip on 15./16. May 1948 the Mannheim derby between the SVW and the VfR as game 1 at the top.

Five "Canadians" become German champions

For the 1948/49 season, the blue-white-red team made further improvements with the addition of Fritz Bolleyer , Ernst Langlotz (another "Canadian") and Rudi Maier . On the seventh first round match day, October 31, 1948, VfR won the derby against SV Waldhof in front of 20,000 spectators 2-1. On November 28, the hosts drew with a 1: 1 against the clear leader of the table Kickers Offenbach and played in the World Cup system with the game-carrying runners Müller, Keuerleber and Maier. The team of coach Hans Schmidt ended the league round on May 15, 1949 with a home draw of 1: 1 against FC Bayern Munich as runner-up and was thus qualified for the final round of the German championship. "Jackl" Müller played in 26 of 30 round games and center forward Löttke scored 16 goals for VfR.

In the quarter-finals, the possibly underestimated VfR defeated Hamburger SV in the Frankfurt Waldstadion with a sensational 5-0. The offensive approach, which coach “Bumbes” brought his team closer to his team with the simple football wisdom: “People, orientate forward! If the ball is in the opponent's half, we cannot score a goal ” . In the semifinals, his team had to deal with the Offenbachers, against whom they had drawn twice in the major league. The game took place in Gelsenkirchen's Glückauf-Kampfbahn , and after just eight minutes the final result was clear: With 2: 1 goals - 1: 0 Löttke (1st), 1: 1 Schreiner (3rd), 2: 1 de la Vigne (8th) - Mannheim succeeded in making the surprising final.

Also against the final opponent Borussia Dortmund , the North Baden were considered outsiders. The VfR had specially prepared for this game in a three-day training camp near the Stuttgart venue , for which the mostly professional footballers had to take vacation. On a scorchingly hot Sunday in July - the game went down in the annals as the “Stuttgart Heat Battle” - VfR was able to equalize the Dortmund leadership twice, so that the approximately 92,000 spectators in the overcrowded Neckarstadion (89,420 tickets had officially been sold) for their entrance fee received a 30 minute addition. In the 108th minute of the game, center forward Löttke scored the decisive goal to make it 3-2, so that the Electoral Palatinate then had to wear the oversized wreath on several laps of honor through the blazing sun.

The VfR rewarded its final heroes with a bonus of 650 DM each. Of the "Canadians", in addition to 32-year-old Jakob Müller, the championship team also included half-forward Langlotz, goalkeeper Jöckel, defender Henninger and playmaker de la Vigne.

Participation in the final round again

In the final round of the German championship in the summer of 1950, the VfR was able to participate in fourth place, as four teams from the upper leagues West and South could qualify this year. First, the blue-white-reds met in Gladbeck on the final opponent of the previous year; Thanks to two goals from de la Vigne, the win over Dortmund Borussia (3-1) was a little easier this time. In the intermediate round game played in Frankfurt, however, the goalkeeper of the opposing Prussians Dellbrück , the later national goalkeeper Fritz Herkenrath , repeatedly brought the defending champion's striker to despair, only allowed the connection goal to make it 1: 2 and thus prevented four southern German league clubs from making the cake in the semi-finals distributed alone among themselves. Against Dortmund and Dellbrück, "Jackl" Müller played as right defender.

In the next two rounds, the Mannheimers could not repeat these successes. After the fifth place in the 1951/52 season, Senior Müller had played 29 of 30 league games (1 goal), he finished with the home game on April 6, 1952 - two days before his 35th birthday - against FC Bayern Munich ( 5: 3) after a total of 174 league appearances for VfR Mannheim (1 goal) his activity with the blue-white-red lawn players and signed for two years with the newly promoted to the south-western league, the FV Speyer .

Finale

With the traditional club from the old cathedral city of Speyer, Müller made his debut on August 24, 1952, in a 0-2 away defeat against Borussia Neunkirchen, in the Oberliga Südwest. On the third day of the round, September 7th, the trip to the away game at “Betzenberg” at 1. FC Kaiserslautern took him. There he acted as center runner and head of the defense and made scoring goals very difficult for the FCK attack, which was used to success by the brothers Fritz and Ottmar Walter, when they lost 1-0. The senior came on 29 missions (1 goal) and the blue-whites from the legendary "Roßsprung" achieved the hoped-for league with 10th place. Three days after his 37th birthday, April 11, 1954, Jakob Müller ended his high-class career as a top division player with a 6-1 away defeat at relegated VfR Kirn. In his second year at FV Speyer he had completed all 30 rounds of matches (1 goal) and thus retired with a total of 233 league appearances and three goals as a league footballer.

Coaching career

Jakob Müller had successfully completed his soccer teacher training course in 1957 and remained connected to soccer even after his playing career: for several years he worked as a coach . Among other things, he trained the “storks” of Berliner SV 92 , 1. FC 01 Bamberg , VfB Coburg and, from November 1963 to November 1965, FC Bayern Hof in the Regionalliga Süd .

Others

He also occasionally played with the traditional 1949 team of VfR Mannheim.

Web links

• Jakob Müller in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Information from The German Football League 1946–1963, Volume 2: Südwest, Süd, Endrunden Sport- und Spielverlag 1989 ISBN 3-9802172-3-X .
2. ↑ 100 years VfR Mannheim, p. 106.
3. ↑ 100 years VfR Mannheim, p. 117.

literature

• 100 years of VfR Mannheim 1896–1996 (anniversary publication)
• Lorenz Knieriem / Hardy Grüne: Spiellexikon 1890–1963. AGON, Kassel o. J. (2006), ISBN 3-89784-148-7 . P. 268.
• Werner Skrentny: Canadians in the "heat battle". In: ders. (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993 ISBN 3-88474-055-5 , 106-113.
• Gerhard Zeilinger: Triumph and decline in Mannheim's football sport 1945-1970. Football archive, Mannheim 1995, ISBN 3-929295-14-8 .