Manfred Czaja

Manfred Czaja (born August 25, 1925 ) is a former German soccer player. From 1951 to 1955 he played in the GDR Oberliga , the top division in GDR football , for the BSG Einheit / Progress Meerane .

Athletic career

During the first half of the 1950/51 league season, several regular players fell out of the company sports community (BSG) unit Meerane. As a replacement, the 25-year-old midfielder Manfred Czaja was accepted into the squad of the BSG, which started as BSG progress in the second half of the season. From the second match day of the second half of the season he was called up in all league games until the end of the season, making 16 appearances. He was used in both midfield and defense and scored three goals. Also in the 1951/52 season Czaja started again as a defender, but was ordered after three game days in the attack, where he was used for the rest of the season. Of the 36 league games, he played 35 games, and this time he came up with four goals. At the end of the season, the Meeraner had to relegate from the league. In the immediate return from the second-rate GDR league to the upper league, Czaja was involved with inserts in all 24 league games and was again the mandatory goalscorer with three goals. In his third league season 1953/54 he was mainly used again in midfield, but remained in 26 of 28 point games without scoring. The season was the last season in the league for both Czaja and BSG Progress. Czaja missed only once in the 26 league games, but was again without a hit, and progress Meerane landed hopelessly behind on the bottom of the table. After a transition round with 13 games to switch to the calendar year rhythm in autumn 1955, in which Czaja was used in twelve matches in the GDR league and scored five goals, regular games in GDR football began again in spring 1958. In the GDR league 26 games had to be completed, in which Czaja only made 15 appearances this time. With his five goals he was still dangerous. In 1957 he was fully operational again, played all 26 league games and with his eight goals became the top scorer of the Meeraner team. Manfred Czaja completed his last season in higher-class football in 1958. He was used again in 22 league games and contributed five goals to the 34 goals of his team. He then retired from competitive football at the age of 33. There he had completed 102 league games with seven goals and 99 GDR league games with 21 goals.

literature

• German sport echo : born 1950–1958. ISSN  0323-8628
• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 100.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , p. 334.

Web links

• Manfred Czaja in the database of the German Football Association