Manfred Coppersmith

Manfred Kupferschmied (born November 20, 1941 in Brüx , Sudetenland ) is a former German football player in the GDR Oberliga for the SC activist Brieske-Senftenberg and the SC / FC Karl-Marx-Stadt . From 1971 he worked as a football coach both in the upper league and in the second-rate GDR league .

Soccer player

After his family was expelled from northern Bohemia after World War II, Manfred Kupferschmied grew up in the small town of Weißwasser in Lusatia . From a sporting point of view, the city had been an East German ice hockey stronghold since the 1930s . Contrary to the trend, however, Kupferschmied began to play football as a ten-year-old at the company sports association (BSG) Chemie Weißwasser . There he was trained as a midfielder and in 1959 at the age of 17 he was delegated to the regional soccer focus SC activist Brieske-Senftenberg.

In November 1959 he was used for the first time in the junior national soccer team, where he was able to direct in the usual position in midfield. By 1960 he had a total of seven junior international matches, later three appearances in the junior team and two games in the B national team.

Coppersmith was employed for the first time in the 1st men's team of the SC Aktivist in 1960. He stayed in Senftenberg until the end of the 1962/63 season , in this season his team rose to the second-rate GDR league after 15 years of membership in the GDR Oberliga. This was the reason for Kupferschmied to leave Lausitz after 69 league games for the SC activist in order to continue playing in the league at SC Karl-Marx-Stadt. Here, however, he could not really assert himself, within three seasons he was called up only 58 times in the 78 top division point games of Karl-Marx-Städter.

So Manfred Kupferschmied made another change in the summer of 1966 and registered in his old home with BSG Energie Cottbus , which had been trying for years to move up to the top division. Thanks to his many years of experience in the upper league, he quickly became a leading player in the Lausitzer and later took on the role of team captain. The quality of the team was not enough for higher demands, and so Kupferschmied played until the end of his active career in 1971 in the second division.

coach

As an active player, Kupferschmied had already obtained a diploma as a football coach at the Leipzig Sports University DHfK . Immediately after finishing his career as a soccer player, he took over his Energie Cottbus team as coach. What he failed to do as a player, he did in his second year as a coach. In 1973 he had led energy behind the second team of the Berlin FC Dynamo, who were not eligible for promotion, to second place in the league season B and thus reached the promotion round to the league. There his team fought for second place behind Stahl Riesa and thus qualified for the major league. However, Kupferschmied did not succeed in forming a team that met the demands of first-class quality. At the end of the 1973/74 season, Energie rose again, only to rise again in 1975. But this time too, the strength was not enough. When the team landed on a relegation zone after the first half of the 1975/76 season, Coppersmith was dismissed as coach.

The league club FC Karl-Marx-Stadt was not satisfied with the development either, because after 20 match days the team was only in 10th place. Since coppersmith was no stranger to Karl-Marx-Stadt, FC took the opportunity to meet with the To hire a trusted coach instead of the unsuccessful Dieter Erler . Karl-Marx-Stadt could not change the condition of the team much and came in 11th at the end of the season. By 1979, Kupferschmied managed to lead each of the Karl-Marx-Städter to a secure midfield position. But when the FCK was only in the lower half of the table in December 1980, the club management ran out of patience, and Kupferschmied had to accept his discharge papers for the second time.

At the beginning of the 1982/83 season he took over the training of the local rival Sachsenring Zwickau , who was also dissatisfied with his 12th place in the pre-season of the league. However, the team was in such a desperate state that even Kupferschmied could not stop the downward trend and in the summer of 1983 had to relegate to the GDR league after only two wins in 26 league games. 1983/84 Zwickau was season winner, but missed the return to the league clearly as 4th in the promotion round. Coppersmith then had to vacate his position as a trainer again.

When a new coaching position for coppersmith was not found either in the Oberliga or in the GDR league, the Karl-Marx-Stadt football district committee appointed him as a district coach in 1986. After the introduction of the DFB game operations in East Germany , Kupferschmied worked in a similar position as a regional coach for the Saxon Football Association until retirement age. In October 2006, Kupferschmied was elected to the board of the Chemnitzer FC, successor to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt, where he was given responsibility for sports.

Career overview

Soccer player
until 1958	BSG Chemie Weißwasser	offspring
1959-1963	SC activist Brieske-Senftenberg	DDR-Oberliga
1963-1966	SC / FC Karl-Marx-Stadt	DDR-Oberliga
1966-1971	BSG Energie Cottbus	GDR League
coach
1971-1976	BSG Energie Cottbus	DDR-Liga, DDR-Oberliga
1976-1980	FC Karl-Marx-Stadt	DDR-Oberliga
1982-1984	BSG Sachsenring Zwickau	GDR Oberliga, GDR League
1986-1991	BFA Karl-Marx-Stadt	District trainer
1991-2006	Saxon VF	Country coach

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 283.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , pp. 301, 324.
• MUNZINGER: Internationales Sportarchiv 35/1978. August 21, 1978
• Uwe Nuttelmann (Ed.): GDR Oberliga. 1962-1991. Self-published, Jade 2007, ISBN 978-3-930814-33-6 .

Web links

• Manfred Kupferschmied in the database of the German Football Association
• Manfred Kupferschmied in the database of weltfussball.de
• Manfred Kupferschmied at www.chemnitzerfc.de