Karl-Heinz Granitza

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Karl-Heinz Granitza
Personnel
birthday November 1, 1951
place of birth Lünen ,  Germany
position Striker , midfielder
Juniors
Years station
0000-1959 VfB Lünen
1959-1969 TuS Eintracht Dortmund
1969-1970 TSC Eintracht Dortmund
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1970-1972 TSC Eintracht Dortmund
1972-1973 Lüner SV 23 00(4)
1973-1975 DJK Gütersloh 50 0(16)
1975-1976 SV Röchling Völklingen 45 0(32)
1976-1979 Hertha BSC 73 0(34)
1978-1984 Chicago Sting 199 (128)
Indoor
Years station Games (goals) 1
1980-1987 Chicago Sting 238 (314)
1988-1990 Chicago Power 53 0(97)
1 Only league games are given.

Karl-Heinz Granitza (born November 1, 1951 in Lünen ) is a former German soccer player who played 73 games in the Bundesliga from 1976 to 1979 as a Hertha BSC player , scoring 34 goals.

career

Until 1976: youth, amateur, regional league, 2nd Bundesliga

Karl-Heinz Granitza started in the youth of VfB Lünen . From 1959 he continued his training at TuS Eintracht and from 1969 TSC Eintracht Dortmund , where he went through all youth classes and his first three years in senior amateur football.

For the round 1972/73 he got a contract with Lüner SV in his hometown and played in the former second-rate Regionalliga West . The LSV could only be managed with a budget and the athletic staff had to move within a given framework. On the first game day, July 30, 1972, the ex-amateur came on as a substitute in the 60th minute of the home game in front of 8,000 spectators against Rot-Weiss Essen . Eight days later, he entered the goalscorer list for the first time in the 2-2 draw at SVA Gütersloh. Granitza scored both goals to win points for coach Theo Gründken's team . Despite the return of defensive routinist Dieter Zorc from VfL Bochum in the course of the preliminary round, LSV was unable to hold the class in Granitza's first year in contract football. With 13:55 points - with one win and eleven draws - Lünen rose from the Regionalliga West after the round in 1972/73. Granitza had made 23 appearances with four goals.

After moving to DJK Gütersloh in the summer of 1973, he stayed in the Regionalliga West. With the DJK he finished ninth in the last round of the Regionalliga 1973/74 and thus qualified for the 1974/75 season for the new 2nd Bundesliga . In 29 missions he contributed eleven goals for Gütersloh. In the first year of the 2nd league, 1974/75, coach Rudolf Schlott brought Granitza to play alongside top performers Ulrich Braun , Gerd Roggensack and Heinz Rudloff in 21 games. The attacker from Lünen scored five goals.

For the 1975/76 round, the Westphalian got an offer from SV Röchling Völklingen from the southern season of the 2nd Bundesliga and he moved to Saarland. Under coach Herbert Binkert , at the side of goalkeeper Jürgen Stars , captain Werner Martin and storm colleague Walter Spohr , “Ellis” Granitza shot himself to the top of the goalscorer list of the 1975/76 season in the 2nd Bundesliga with a sensational 29 hits. Now the “top scorer” was on the Bundesliga wish list. Völklingen initially withstood the pressure, Granitza completed the first seven second division games for the Saarlanders in the 1976/77 round and scored three goals, but on September 17, 1976 he stormed for the first time in the Bundesliga for Hertha BSC.

1976–1979: Hertha BSC

Granitza was also able to establish himself as a goalscorer right away in the first division. In the 1: 2 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on September 17, he scored the Berlin consolation goal and in his second appearance for Hertha in the home Olympic Stadium he was a two-time goalscorer in the 2-1 home win against Werder Bremen . Hertha BSC finished tenth in the 1976/77 round and “Ellis” had scored 15 goals in 27 missions. Already on November 17, 1976 he came to a use in the B national team of the DFB in an international match in Timișoara against Romania. In the DFB Cup , coach Georg Keßler's team played their way up to the final against 1. FC Köln . The game ended on May 28, 1977 in Hanover 1-1 after extra time and two days later in the replay, the team of coach Hennes Weisweiler prevailed 1-0. Granitza formed Hertha’s attack in both finals with senior Lorenz Horr .

Under the new coach Kuno Klötzer , who succeeded "Sir" Georg Keßler , the Berliners belonged to the top group in the 1977/78 round with third place in the table and Granitza had scored 17 goals in 31 appearances. From May to August 1978 he played for the first time briefly in the NASL with Chicago Sting .

In the preliminary round 1978/79 he completed 15 games with two hits. His last appearance was on December 16, 1978, when Hertha BSC lost their home game against 1. FC Köln with 2-0 goals. In front of the midfield with Ole Rasmussen , Dieter Nüssing , Wolfgang Sidka and Erich Beer , he formed the Berlin attack for the last time together with Jürgen Milewski . The financially tight Hertha was happy to be able to transfer Granitza to the Chicago Stings for 440,000 German marks during the winter break .

1978–1991: Chicago Stings and Chicago Power

From 1979 Granitza played for Chicago Sting in the NASL and until 1984 he scored 128 goals in 199 games, placing him in second place behind Giorgio Chinaglia in the all-time top scorer list . He was American professional champion in 1981 and 1984. In 1982 he was voted Sportsman of the Year in Chicago and in 1984, when he won the second championship, Granitza was appointed to the NASL all-start team. Teammates in Chicago included fellow countrymen Hans Weiner , Ingo Peter and Arno Steffenhagen .

Granitza was one of the best indoor specialists in the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League), and was already successful in indoor soccer during the NASL era. In a total of 238 league games that he played for the Chicago Sting indoor team from 1980 to 1987, he scored 314 goals. Between 1988 and 1990 he also made 53 appearances and 97 goals for Chicago Power in the American Indoor Soccer Association .

During his time in Chicago, Granitza also drew attention to himself with his commitment to social and charitable causes.

After the career

In May 1991 Karl-Heinz Granitza returned to Germany with his wife Roswitha and their three children, two of whom were born in the USA, which Granitza justifies primarily with his wife's homesickness. first to Dortmund, 1992 back to Berlin. He was still active with the old men of Mariendorfer SV 06 and the traditional Hertha team as well as in the 1st old league team of SC Borsigwalde 1910 . Today he plays in the over 50 team of the Reinickendorfer Füchse .

In Berlin, from his relatively modest savings, he opened an American-style "Sports Bar" in Charlottenburg on Grolmanstrasse on Savignyplatz, which he named State Street after the boulevard of the same name in Chicago . But he had to close this again in 1996 after residents protests because of noise pollution and was left with debts.

Karl-Heinz Granitza was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003.

From February to June 2007 he was a coach at SV Röchling Völklingen, which he saved from relegation from the fifth-class Saarland Association League. He then worked as a scout for Chelsea FC until 2009 .

He then tried to establish a career as a freelance blogger with his website karlheinzgranitza.com.

literature

  • Ulrich Homann (Ed.): Farmer's heads, miners and a pascha. The history of the Regionalliga West 1963–1974. Volume 1, Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-345-7 .
  • Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Fohlensturm am Katzenbusch. The history of the Regionalliga West 1963–1974. Volume 2, Klartext, Essen 1995, ISBN 3-88474-206-X .
  • 25 years 2nd league, AGON, 2000, ISBN 3-89784145-2
  • Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 .
  • Matthias Weinrich, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 6: German Cup history since 1935. Pictures, statistics, stories, constellations. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-146-0 .
  • LIBERO, number D 2, 1991, IFFHS, p. 86

Web links

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Granitza, Karl-Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Lünen , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany