Klaus Theiss

Klaus Theiss (2010)

Klaus Theiss (born July 9, 1963 in Nagold ) is a former German soccer player who played 146 games in the Bundesliga from 1981 to 1990 and scored 14 goals.

career

Youth until 1981

In 1978, Klaus Theiss joined the ambitious youth department of TuS Ergenzingen (near Tübingen ) from his home club VfL Nagold . In addition to the sporting support from coach Walter Baur, he got to know the advantages of a friendly and comradely yet attractively successful youth work with long trips, which in 1980 even led to Brazil for three weeks. A change to the youth department of a Bundesliga club was not an option for Theiss due to the close friendly connections. In the Association Relay South, the A-Jugend was champion in 1981 and behind VfB Stuttgart in the final round of Württemberg runners-up. In this year the TuS-A-Jugend also won the international Whitsun tournament, which has been held since 1972, for the first time, with a final victory against MSV Duisburg . The outstanding player at the tournament winner was Klaus Theiss.

Via the Württemberg selection, the attacking libero played his way into the field of vision of DFB trainer Dietrich Weise . His first two international appearances in the youth national team were in January 1980 when he played against the USA in Redland and Orlando. In September 1980 he took part with the DFB team in a tournament in Pula, Istria, where he was used four times. In November 1980, the DFB youth attended the Prince Albert Cup in Monaco, and Theiss completed four more international matches. In January 1981 Theiss was active with the DFB-Elf at the Granatkin memorial tournament in Moscow and was involved in the three successes against Spain, the Soviet Union and Bulgaria. The European championship tournament in May / June 1981 in Germany was outstanding in terms of sport . As a libero and a sure penalty taker, Klaus Theiss led the DFB youth with successes against Wales, Belgium, Greece and in the semi-finals against France in the final on June 3 against Poland in Düsseldorf. With a 1-0 win, the talents Rüdiger Vollborn , Ulf Quaisser , Anton Schmidkunz , Ralf Falkenmayer , Thomas Brunner , Ralf Loose , Holger Anthes , Thomas Herbst , Roland Wohlfarth and Klaus Theiss - for him it was the 20th international youth game - the European title .

During and after the EM tournament, Klaus Theiss received contract offers from VfB Stuttgart , the Stuttgarter Kickers , Eintracht Frankfurt , MSV Duisburg and Karlsruher SC . Theiss decided in favor of the offer from KSC managing director Manfred Amerell , because Theiss calculated the best prospects for an early game in the Bundesliga in Baden. Because of a game for the inauguration of the new grass pitch, Theiss returned to Ergenzingen in 1982 with the KSC.

Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, 1981 to 1987

In the Bundesliga home game of Karlsruher SC on August 26, 1981 against Arminia Bielefeld , Libero Reinhold Fanz suffered a knee injury in the first half and coach Manfred Krafft brought the 18-year-old newcomer from Ergenzingen, Klaus Theiss, to his Bundesliga debut in the second half of the game. With the young defense chief, the 2-1 half-time lead was defended and KSC scored two points. Up to the 34th matchday - on May 29, 1982 at Hamburger SV - Theiss was on the field in all of the following 30 league games for Baden. Even when coach Krafft - after the 14th matchday with 11:17 points in twelfth place - was surprisingly replaced by Max Merkel on November 27, 1981 , the talent was able to meet the demands of the "successful coach". Although the first game with the "Zampano" was lost with 1: 4 goals on November 28th against 1. FC Köln after goals from Rainer Bonhof , Klaus Fischer , Tony Woodcock and Pierre Littbarski , Karlsruhe was able to take 14th place in the table Get the class at the end of the round. Theiss had played 31 Bundesliga games in his first year and was one of the top performers of the KSC game along with Rudolf Wimmer , Stephan Groß , Edmund Becker , Gerhard Bold , Martin Wiesner , Emanuel Günther and Wolfgang Schüler . Outstanding was the 4-1 success on February 13, 1981 in the local Wildpark Stadium against FC Bayern Munich when the young libero was able to keep the attacking efforts of Bayern stars Paul Breitner , Dieter Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in check. Due to its importance for the regular cast, Theiss did not receive any approval from the KSC for the U19 World Championship tournament in October 1981 in Australia, where his colleagues - including Rüdiger Vollborn , Michael Zorc and Roland Wohlfarth - won the title with a 4-0 victory on 18 October in Sydney against Qatar succeeded.

Merkel did not extend his contract in Karlsruhe and Horst Franz, a new coach, came to Baden for the 1982/83 round. Theiss suffered the first injury breaks - he was only available to KSC for 24 games - and the KSC was unable to prevent relegation due to the change in coach on February 1, 1983, the previous assistant Lothar Strehlau replaced the dismissed Franz. Theiss stayed in Karlsruhe and won the championship in the 2nd Bundesliga with coach Werner Olk in the 1983/84 round and was thus able to celebrate the immediate resurgence. In 38 games he had scored five goals. Due to a negative series from the 13th to the 18th matchday with 0:12 points and 4:29 goals, KSC slipped dramatically as a climber in the round 1984/85 in the table. Lothar Buchmann replaced the previous coach Olk on March 25, 1985, but Karlsruhe was relegated in seventeenth place. Theiss had played 32 games in his fourth season at KSC and scored three goals. After a total of 125 league appearances with eight goals for the KSC, he accepted the offer from Eintracht Frankfurt for the 1985/86 round and moved to the Main.

Under the training direction of Dietrich Weise , Theiss was used in 28 games in his first year in Frankfurt and won the "top scorer crown" of Eintracht with seven goals. The Eagle Bearers scored only 35 goals in this round and could only occupy 15th place. Theiss's personal good performance is documented by two appointments to the U21 national team in October 1985 and April 1986. On October 15, 1985, he conducted the defenders Stefan Reuter , Jürgen Kohler and Michael Frontzeck as Libero in Karlsruhe in the EM qualifier against Portugal in the 2-0 victory. On April 8, 1986 he was together with goalkeeper Bodo Illgner the defensive support in the 2-1 success in Kehl against Switzerland. The second year of Eintracht, 1986/87, was under the negative signs of the dismissal of coach Dietrich Weise on December 3, 1986 and a torn ligament on September 20, 1986 at the home game against Werder Bremen, where Theiss was replaced in the 32nd minute . It was not until the 18th matchday, February 21, 1987, that Theiss was able to actively intervene again in the game. In the meantime Manfred Binz had moved up on the libero position and Theiss had to be content with 14 appearances with two goals at the end of the round. Theiss could not agree on a contract extension with Eintracht Frankfurt and was on hold at the beginning of the 1987/88 season. A quick transfer to FC Schalke 04 , which the club had already reported as perfect, failed due to the financing. In the late autumn of 1987 (November) he then became part of Uli Stein's transfer to Eintracht - he was loaned to Hamburger SV in return . This happened under coach Josip Skoblar , but since the Yugoslav was replaced by Willi Reimann on November 11, 1987 and who did not plan with Theiss, he did not come to any further Bundesliga use in the 1987/88 round. In order to regain match practice, he therefore accepted Viktoria Aschaffenburg's offer from the 2nd Bundesliga for the round in 1988/89 .

Aschaffenburg, Homburg and Berlin, 1988 to 1995

In the stadium am Schönbusch , the ex-youth national player was able to play a full round again and completed 36 of the 38 round games for the team of coach Kurt Geinzer (in office until April 1989). Due to the away weakness - 7:31 points - the good home record of 27:11 points could not manage the relegation. On the final day, June 18, 1989, Aschaffenburg lost with 1: 2 goals at SG Wattenscheid 09 and SpVgg Bayreuth won their home game against Darmstadt 98 with 4: 1 and thus reached a tie with Viktoria, but had the better goal difference and remained in the 2nd Bundesliga. Klaus Theiss and his teammates Rudi Bommer , Hans-Peter Knecht , Peter Löhr and Claus Reitmaier , on the other hand, relegated to the amateur camp.

At the runner-up in the 2nd division and promoted to the Bundesliga, FC 08 Homburg , Klaus Theiss had another opportunity to prove his skills in the football upper house for the 1989/90 round. But his susceptibility to injury, mainly in the ankle, allowed only 17 missions for the team of 1st chairman Udo Geitlinger . With the Homburgers he started with a 0: 3 away defeat on July 28, 1989 in the round and played his 17th game of the round on the 33rd matchday, in a 1-0 home win against VfL Bochum. The Saarlanders came up to the bottom after 34 match days in the second division. Wolfgang Fahrian , the adviser to Theiss, arranged his transfer to Jack White's club in Berlin, to Tennis Borussia Berlin , in the winter of 1990/91 . With the "Veilchen" Theiss rose to the 2nd Bundesliga in 1993, but was unable to do so due to injury - Theiss had to cope with a total of seven operations in his career and the subsequent breaks of three to six months - only played three games in 1993/94 and ended his career as a sports disabled person in 1995.

After football

Theiss, who finished school after completing secondary school, completed an apprenticeship as a travel agent after playing football and is now (2008) running a travel agency in Erlensee near Hanau.

literature

• Up, heroes! Magazine for Football Time Stories, No. 13. Verlag Block Eins (Ed.), Karlsruhe 2008.
• Matthias Kropp: Germany's big soccer teams, part 11: Karlsruher SC . AGON Sportverlag, 1998, ISBN 3-89609-115-8 .
• Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 5: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 3. Boom Years, Money & Stars 1987 to today. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-89784-134-7 .
• Matthias Weinrich: Second League Almanac. All players. All clubs. All results. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-190-8 .