Paul Hahn (soccer player)

Paul Hahn (born January 16, 1949 in Sonsbeck , North Rhine-Westphalia ) is a former German football player . In the Bundesliga , the defender completed 81 games and scored four goals; in the second division he played 237 games and scored eight goals. In the second -rate regional football league West , he played 73 games and scored 11 goals. With Chicago Sting , he became the USA champion in 1981.

career

Uerdingen, 1971 to 1981

At home SV Sonsbeck Hahn started playing soccer as a student. In the summer of 1971 he moved from the amateur field from TuS Lintfort to the promoted team in the Regionalliga West, to Bayer 05 Uerdingen . He was active as a sweeper for Bayer 05 for the next ten years. Under the football department head Paul Hufnagel and the qualified sports teacher as coach, Klaus Quinkert , the team from Krefeld-Uerdingen had made it to the second class at the time. In addition to Paul Hahn, Hans Sondermann , Horst Riege and Manfred Burgsmüller were other newcomers to the Grotenburg-Kampfbahn . The 1.86 m tall Libero Hahn advanced to become an indispensable regular player and conductor of the defensive right from the start of his playing at Uerdingen. He completed 26 league appearances in the 1971/72 season and scored four goals when he reached seventh place in the regional league newcomers. By increasing to third place twice in the last two rounds of the old second-rate regional league, in 1973 and 1974 , Bayer Uerdingen was accepted into the new 2nd Bundesliga that started in 1974/75 . Hahn has played a total of 73 league games with eleven goals for Uerdingen in the three years of the Regionalliga.

In the debut year of the 2nd league, 1974/75 , Hahn and colleagues started in the northern group, which consisted of 20 clubs. The Bundesliga relegated Hannover 96 and SC Fortuna Köln were the favorite teams together with Borussia Dortmund and the last champions of the Regionalliga West, SG Wattenscheid 09. The "Reds" from Hanover with their goalscorers Peter Dahl (23 goals) and Gerd Kasperski (20 goals) prevailed relatively safely and won the championship in the north. Uerdingen, St. Pauli and Arminia Bielefeld were involved in the fight for second place. Libero Hahn completed all 38 rounds and led his team to the runner-up with the best defense - 66:38 goals; Bayer 05 relegated St. Pauli and Bielefeld to their places with just one point. This meant that the qualifying games for the third Bundesliga climber against the southern vice-championship FK Pirmasens were on June 18 and 22. The first leg ended 4: 4 and in the second leg 24,000 spectators experienced a festive day in the Grotenburg Stadium. An unleashed Bayer team won the promotion to the Bundesliga with a 6-0 win. Hahn had acted as Libero in both games, as during the entire round.

With the newcomers Peter Lübeke , Lorenz-Günther Köstner , Reinhard Willi , Uwe Hansel and Wolfgang Figura , the BL-climber started the 1975/76 season ; the dangerous midfield player Wolfgang Lüttges joined Hannover 96. With a 1: 2 away defeat at Rot-Weiss Essen on August 9, 1975 - two goals by Horst Hrubesch - Hahn and colleagues started into the Bundesliga. At the end of the round they finished 18th with 22:46 points and thus immediately relegated to the 2nd division. With 28 goals scored, they had made the league's lowest goal attack. The fact that Libero Hahn was also competitive in the highest class was also demonstrated by his two appointments to the German B national team in September and October of the first half of the season. He made his debut on September 2 in a 2-0 win in Augsburg against Austria in the B-Elf and played together with goalkeeper Norbert Nigbur , defender Bernard Dietz and striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge . Five weeks later he also won the second international B match 2-0 in Duisburg against Romania. Here he formed the defensive with Harald Konopka , Michael Sziedat and Vorstopper Reiner Hollmann .

After relegation, Hahn remained in Uerdingen and needed three attempts to return to the Bundesliga. In the 1978/79 season , the team captain came under coach Horst Buhtz again to the runner-up and thus in two qualifying games against the southern runner-up SpVgg Bayreuth. In both games he led the Bayer-Elf as a Libero; in the 1-1 away draw on June 14th in Bayreuth, he played a major role in the contested 1-1 draw. The two Bayreuth “oldies”, Wolfgang Breuer and Manfred Großesler , heated up a lot in interaction with their teammates from the Uerdingen defense. The home game on June 20th brought a goal by Willi Götz in the 85th minute, the 2-1 decision for the home team.

With the 3-2 home win on matchday 33, May 24, 1980, against Eintracht Frankfurt, Hahn and colleagues finally got themselves to safety, they held the class in the 1979/80 season. The Libero had played 28 league games, mostly with Norbert Brinkmann at their side. Friedhelm Funkel with 14 and Jan Mattsson with 12 were primarily responsible for the goals of the Uerdingen . In the following year, 1980/81, Hahn rose with Uerdingen as 18th in the 2nd division. Funkel played for the "Red Devils" on the Betzenberg and Mattsson scored one goal in eleven games. Hahn had scored three goals in 27 league games. His last Bundesliga game for Uerdingen was on May 16, 1981 in a 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt. After ten rounds with a total of 81 Bundesliga games (four goals), 237 appearances in the 2nd Bundesliga (eight goals) and 81 second-rate regional league appearances (four goals), he was drawn to the NASL in North America in mid-1981.

Chicago and Oberhausen, 1981 to 1986

In 1981 he moved to the North American professional league NASL and joined the Chicago Sting there. With the club, Paul Hahn immediately won the US championship against Cosmos New York, he played a total of 54 times for Chicago and scored two goals. In 1982 he moved to the Oberliga Nordrhein to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen , with the Red-Whites he was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. In 1986 he ended his career in Oberhausen after another 103 games (3 goals) in the 2nd Bundesliga.

As a coach, he was in charge of the Bundesliga club Viktoria Goch in the 1988/89 season .

After the football career

Today Paul Hahn runs a sports center in Sonsbeck and was 2nd chairman of SV Sonsbeck in the Oberliga Niederrhein until 2015 .

In the player lexicon of Karn and Rehberg it is stated about Hahn: "An excellent Libero, technically very good, intelligent in the opening of the game and the absolute head of the team."

literature

• Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 9: Player Lexicon 1963-1994. Bundesliga, regional league, 2nd league. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN 978-3-89784-214-4 .
• Hardy Greens (Ed.): Of gray mice and great masters. The book about the Bundesliga. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-89784-114-2 .
• Raphael Keppel: Chronicle of the 2nd Bundesliga 1974–1989. Sports and games publisher Edgar Hitzel. Hürth 1990. ISBN 3-9802172-7-2 .

Web links

• Paul Hahn in the database of weltfussball.de
• Paul Hahn in the database of fussballdaten.de
• Sportcenter-Sonsbeck.de
• Paul Hahn in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)