Peter English

Peter English (born March 12, 1962 in Schkopau ) was a soccer player in Leipzig and Markkleeberg . For the 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig he played in the GDR Oberliga , the top division of the GDR Football Association, and won the GDR Football Cup with him once . English is a multiple GDR junior national player.

Athletic career

In 1969, English was accepted into the children's team at 1. FC Lok Leipzig. In 1976 he was with the junior team of 1. FC Lok GDR champion. At the age of 16 he was the youngest member of the junior league team in the men's division. Between 1979 and 1980 he was part of the squad of the GDR junior national team, with which he played 21 international matches as a center forward, in which he scored four goals.

Even as a nominal player in the junior league, the 1.75 m tall English made his first appearances in the GDR league in the 1979/80 season. There he made his debut at the age of 17 on August 25, 1979, when he was substituted on in the match on the second match day 1. FC Lok - Hallescher FC Chemie (2: 3) in the 63rd minute. After just four minutes, he scored his first top division goal with the connection goal to make it 2: 3. By the end of the season, English was used in a total of ten league games, but he was only twice in the starting line-up. For the 1980/81 season 1. FC Lok officially announced him as a striker for the league team, but English was only used on matchday 14 and was then mainly only a substitute again. After eleven league matches, three times from the start, he had his career highlight at the end of the season when he won the GDR soccer cup. With English as a left winger, 1. FC Lok Leipzig won the final 4-1 over FC Vorwärts Frankfurt. English also completed his apprenticeship as an electrician.

For the 1981/82 season, coach Harro Miller seemed to be counting on English as a striker in the league team. He used him in the first competitive game, the European Cup game Politehnica Timișoara - 1. FC Lok (2-0), and also offered him in the first league game. There, however, English injured himself so badly in the 36th minute that he couldn't play for the rest of the first half of the season. After three league games, another European Cup game (1. FC Lok - FC Barcelona 0: 3) and an international match with the GDR youth team, he injured himself again. This injury was synonymous with the end of his career as a high-performance athlete, because he could no longer be used in the first division team of 1. FC Lok. Although FC still listed him as a striker for the 1982/83 season, in the preview for 1983/84 he announced the 21-year-old's departure for health reasons. Within four years, English had played 31 competitive games for 1. FC Lok Leipzig: 25 league games, four national and two European cup games. He scored his four competitive goals in the league point games.

For this season, English had already registered with the second division TSG Chemie Markkleeberg . There he played, interrupted by a year and a half in the army, until 1987 in the GDR league , after which he finally ended his career as a football player in the performance area.

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 .
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 .
• Uwe Nuttelmann (Ed.): GDR Oberliga. 1962-1991. Self-published, Jade 2007, ISBN 978-3-930814-33-6 .
• DSFS: GDR Chronicle , Volume 7, 1984 / 85–1988 / 89

Web links

• Use statistics at www.lok-leipzig-db.com