Paul Kersten (soccer player)

Coach Paul Kersten (left) on a team photo of BSG Motor Suhl 1984

Paul Kersten (born August 8, 1949 in Jeßnitz, Anhalt ) was a soccer player in the GDR soccer association . In its highest division, the Oberliga , he played for Halleschen FC Chemie . Kersten is a multiple GDR junior national player.

Athletic career

Kersten first played football in his hometown for the company sports association (BSG) Chemie Jeßnitz. In 1956 he switched to BSG Chemie Wolfen as a student . From 1966 Kersten belonged to the squad of the GDR junior national team, for which he played eight international matches until 1967. Immediately thereafter, he was taken over to the youth national team, with which he came to seven internationals until 1969. As early as 1968, he had been delegated by the BSG to the football performance center of the Halle district , the upper division Hallescher FC Chemie. After he had completed his first league game on August 31, 1968 in the match on the 3rd match day of the 1968/69 season HFC - FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (2-0), he immediately fought for a regular place as a defender. In his first league season he played 21 of 26 point games. Kersten kept his regular place until the end of 1972. In the second half of the 1972/73 season he only played once in the first team, as well as during the entire 1973/74 season, which the HFC had to spend in the GDR league after his relegation in 1973 . Kersten played his last season in Halle in 1974/75 after the HFC was promoted back to the league. After two short appearances in the first half of the season, he was used five times as a Libero at the end of the season. In the summer of 1975 Kersten left the Halleschen FC, for which he had played 107 league games in eight years and scored eight goals. In 1971 he played a game in the UEFA Cup competition with HFC . It was the first leg of the first round in which Halle drew 0-0 at home against PSV Eindhoven. The second leg did not come because before this game a fire broke out in the HFC team headquarters in Eindhoven, in which a player from Halle was killed and two players were seriously injured. The HFC then withdrew its team.

At the beginning of the 1975/76 season Kersten joined the GDR league team from Motor Suhl . There he was appointed team captain in 1980. In 1983/84 he was still in the GDR league squad, but was no longer used at the age of 34. Instead he acted as an assistant coach under Ernst Kurth from 1984. At the end of the season, Suhl surprisingly rose to the league, in which Kersten, who had since resigned as a soccer player, continued to act as an assistant coach. When the Suhler relegated from the league after a year, he took over the training of the 2nd team in the third-class district league .

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 247.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , p. 319.
• Uwe Nuttelmann (Ed.): GDR Oberliga. 1962-1991. Self-published, Jade 2007, ISBN 978-3-930814-33-6 .
• GDR sports newspaper Deutsches Sportecho . Issued December 2, 1982 with a short biography

Web links

• Paul Kersten in the database of the German Football Association