Manfred Pfeifer

Manfred Pfeifer (born January 30, 1934 in Chemnitz ; † September 29, 2003 ) was a soccer player in Chemnitz and Leipzig and soccer coach, among others for the GDR upper division 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt .

Biographical

Pfeifer started playing organized football in his hometown of Chemnitz when he was eight. After the end of the Second World War he joined the SG Chemnitz West, from which the BSG Nagema Chemnitz emerged in 1949 . With the BSG he won the Saxon Junior Championship in 1951. In the same year he began studying at the Leipzig Sports University DHfK and continued to play football for the university sports association until 1953. After completing his studies, Pfeifer switched to the league promoted BSG Einheit Ost Leipzig at the beginning of the 1953/54 season , where he was now eligible to play for the men's division. In the following year, the BSG football section was incorporated into the newly founded SC Rotation Leipzig . With her, Pfeifer achieved his greatest success as an active football player in the men's division with third place in the 1954/55 league season, which he was able to repeat in 1957. In the following years, the team slipped into the lower regions of the league. When Pfeifer ended his active career in 1959, the SC Rotation had only reached 11th place at the end of the season. In the six years at Einheit / Rotation Leipzig he completed 42 points games in the league, usually deployed in midfield, and scored three goals.

Since Pfeifer had been trained as a qualified sports teacher, he was able to continue his career as a soccer coach. He initially stayed with SC Rotation, took over the training of the junior team and led them to the GDR junior championship in 1961. His successful work in the youth field prompted the GDR football association to employ Pfeifer as a youth association coach at the end of 1961. In this role he coached the GDR junior national team for several years .

At the beginning of the 1976/77 season, Pfeifer became head coach of 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and thus returned to his former place of work. 1. FC Lok had become the successor to SC Rotation via the intermediate station SC Leipzig. Pfeifer had taken over the team as the previous season's cup winners and led them to the final again in 1977, where his team lost 3-2 to Dynamo Dresden. In 1977 Pfeifer achieved a 5th place in the championship and a 4th place in 1978, too little for the club officials. Pfeifer was therefore released at the end of the 1977/78 season in Leipzig.

Pfeifer was still retained in the league. In the following season he took over the coaching position at FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt, where Gerhard Bäßler had retired after five years of service. Under Pfeifer's leadership, Erfurt improved from 9th place in the previous year to 7th place at the end of the 1978/79 season and again reached the cup final in 1980. But Pfeifer failed to win the cup even in the second attempt, Erfurt lost to FC Carl Zeiss Jena with 1: 3. In April 1982 Pfeifer was replaced by Siegmar Menz during the current season and deported to the post of district coach at the Erfurt Football Association. For one season, Pfeifer took over the league team from Rot-Weiß Erfurt again in 1987/88, which fell from 7th place in the previous year to 12th place. After that he was no longer active in higher-class teams. From 1990 until his retirement in 1999 he worked as a national coach for the Thuringian Football Association .

literature

• Michael Horn, Gottfried Weise : The great lexicon of GDR football. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-536-8 .
• German sport echo of October 1, 1966
• fuwo special editions 1978–1989