Paul Jahnel

Paul Jahnel (born August 1, 1927 - March 27, 2005 ) was a German football player . As an active member of Rot-Weiss Essen , he and the team from Bergeborbeck won the DFB Cup in 1953 and the German soccer championship in 1955 . From 1949 to 1958, the outside runner completed 241 league games in the football Oberliga West in the then predominantly practiced World Cup system and scored 17 goals.

career

In the 1948/49 season, the outside runner and half-forward from TuS Helene Essen drew the attention of those responsible at FC Schalke 04 in the Lower Rhine regional league . For the round 1949/50 he belonged to the upper division squad of the "Knappen" -Elf. Under coach Fritz Szepan Jahnel made his debut on September 11, 1949 in a 4-2 away win against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the Oberliga West. On the 15th and 30th round match day he was also in action in the two games against Rot-Weiss Essen. Schalke won the home game with 4-2 goals, and Georg Melches' team prevailed on Hafenstrasse with a clear 5-1 victory. Jahnel completed 26 league games and scored three goals; Schalke 04 took sixth place. For round 1950/51 he played in his hometown Essen, with the Rot-Weissen in Bergeborbeck.

Under coach Karl Hohmann and at the side of center runner Heinz Wewers and striker August Gottschalk , the team-serving external runner was one of the indispensable top performers of the Elf from Hafenstrasse in the next few years. In the 1951/52 season he (30-1) was able to win the championship in the Oberliga West with RWE and thus make it to the finals for the German championship. He played all six group games for the Westmeister against Tennis Borussia Berlin, VfL Osnabrück and VfB Stuttgart. In 1953, when he failed to defend his title as third in the table, he and his teammates won the DFB Cup, which was played for the first time after the Second World War . After successes against Jahn Regensburg, VfL Osnabrück, Hamburger SV and SV Waldhof Mannheim, the Red-Whites prevailed with a 2-1 win in the final on May 1, 1953 in Düsseldorf against the West German competitor Alemannia Aachen. Despite his special task of chaining the Alemannia conductor Jupp Derwall, Jahnel was one of the drivers of the RWE game.

The success story of RWE continued in the year of the soccer world championship 1954 in Switzerland; one point behind champions 1. FC Köln, the team around goalkeeper Fritz Herkenrath and attackers Helmut Rahn , Franz Islacker and Bernhard Termath finished second in the western league in the 1953/54 season . The final round was canceled because of the shortened championship mode for the purpose of preparing the national team for the western runner-up. Instead, on April 23, the Red-Whites began a nine-week trip to South and North America, which took them to Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and the USA. A total of 16 games were played; Opponents included Independiente from Avellaneda, San Lorenzo from Buenos Aires, Peñarol from Montevideo, the national team of Uruguay and Alianza Lima. The American trip ended with a two-week stay in the USA. The tour company returned to Essen on June 22, 1954.

The sporting highlight was the round 1954/55 . With a six point lead over the surprise team SV Sodingen , Rot-Weiss won the championship in the west and made it to the finals. Jahnel had only missed one association game in the league. In the final round, the team from Hafenstrasse, now trained by Fritz Szepan , prevailed against Bremerhaven 93, Kickers Offenbach and Wormatia Worms and moved into the final on June 26th in Hanover against 1. FC Kaiserslautern . Fritz Walter's men entered the final as favorites. In the end there was a 4-3 victory for the team of captain August Gottschalk and honorary chairman Georg Melches. Jahnel acted on his regular position of the right outer runner.

He was able to act as a top performer for his team for two more years, but the losses of Gottschalk and Termath reduced RWE's performance. With the game on February 2, 1958, there was a 2-0 home defeat against SV Sodingen, he ended his playing career. A hip joint injury forced him to give up his playing career. He took over a petrol station, only about five minutes away from the Georg Melches Stadium and located directly on Hafenstrasse, and ran it until he retired.

literature

• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Georg Schrepper, Uwe Wick: “… RWE again and again!” The story of Rot-Weiss-Essen. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-467-7 .