Reinhard Knöfel

Reinhard Knöfel (born September 15, 1931 ) is a former German soccer player who played 240 games in the Berlin City League and scored 129 goals. With two goals ahead of Helmut Faeder, he is the all-time record scorer in this league.

career

Amateur football and beginnings in the city league until 1953

The young offensive player with scoring qualities and his club VfL Nord Berlin became champions in the Berlin amateur league in the 1950/51 season. VfL Nord was thus qualified for the games for the German amateur championship and was promoted to the city league. The Berlin amateur champion failed in the first round against the later title holder Bremen 1860 . Reinhard Knöfel and his VfL teammates in 1951/52 were not up to the sporting level of the city league. With 6:46 points, the descent could not be prevented. Knöfel completed 16 of 22 games in the city league and scored five goals. After he had remained loyal to VfL Nord for a year in the amateur league, he moved to Spandauer SV for the 1953/54 round .

City League Berlin, 1953 to 1963

In the runner-up in the 1952/53 round, Knöfel completed 19 of 22 league games and scored six goals. At the side of fellow strikers Horst Abraham and Rudolf Lange , he experienced an unsuccessful start with 2: 8 points and thus came fourth with the SSV at the end of the lap. Since coach Kurt Weinreich had brought the red and whites from the stadium on Neuendorfer Strasse into shape in the final sprint, Knöfel and his colleagues moved into the final of the Berlin Cup . On April 11, 1954, in front of 20,000 spectators in the Poststadion , the SSV won the final 1-0 against Tennis Borussia Berlin - Rudolf Deinert , Kurt Manthey , Gerhard Graf , Fritz Wilde . The newcomer from VfL Nord played on half right. In 1955 and 1956, Knöfel, who developed into a playmaker and goalscorer, repeated the Berlin Cup successes in the finals against Minerva 93 Berlin and SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin . When Hertha BSC won the Berlin championship for the first time since 1944 in the 1956/57 season , Spandau ended up in seventh place, ten points behind. Reinhard Knöfel's personal record in the goalscorer list was, however, with 15 goals, the joint second place with Helmut Bruckhoff from Tasmania 1900. Helmut Faeder took the top scorer's crown with 18 goals. This was followed by three rounds with the SSV in the top group, in the game for the championship. Knöfel had a decisive influence on these years with his playful ability and his hit rate. In the year of the soccer World Cup in Sweden in 1958, Spandau was one point behind champion TeBe with 43:22 goals, tied with runner-up Viktoria 89 Berlin , in third place. Dieter Blümchen led the list of goalscorers with 19 goals ahead of Knöfel with 18 and Horst Schmutzler with 16 goals. Spandau with playmaker and striker Knöfel increased in the following round. Although only the trio Tennis Borussia, Viktoria 89 and Hertha BSC were raised to the favorites sign before the start of the round, the championship race ended in a duel between SC Tasmania 1900 and Spandau in the 1958/59 round, which was held for the first time in three rounds with 33 game days . The highlight took place on the last day of the match, 25/26. April 1959, when leaders Tasmania lost 3-1 at Hertha BSC in front of 35,000 spectators and Spandauer SV gave away their sudden chance with a 4-2 defeat at Wacker 04. Tasmania won the championship one point ahead of SSV and made it into the finals of the German soccer championship. The outstanding player personality Reinhard Knöfel conquered the top scorer in Berlin with 23 goals . In this round he was appointed by national coach Sepp Herberger for the international match on November 19, 1958 in Berlin against Austria in the team of players, which consisted of Helmut Rahn , Helmut Haller , Uwe Seeler , Rolf Geiger , Helmut Faeder, Helmut Kapitulski and Knöfel . The man from Spandauer SV was not used.

In the next round, 1959/60, the dramaturgy was repeated. On the penultimate game day, April 10, 1960, the leaders Spandauer SV and Tasmania 1900 with 40:16 points met each other in Spandau and the Neuköllner prevailed with a 3-0 win. Since the final 2-0 defeat of the old and new champions with 0-2 goals against Hertha BSC could not change anything, because the SSV did not go beyond a 1: 1 against Berliner SV 92 on the final day and thus again with One point behind as third - level on points with vice Hertha BSC - the round ended. Knöfel played 27 games and scored 17 goals. The last appearance in the city league recorded the Berlin scorer in the 3: 4 home defeat against Hertha BSC on April 7, 1963. In the 88th minute he scored a total of 129 goals in his 240 game in the Berlin league.

End of career

Knöfel, who had also made 37 appearances in the Berlin city selection from 1955 to 1962, ended his playing career in 1963/64 with two games in the Berlin Regionalliga at the age of 32.

literature

• Wolfgang Hartwig / Günter Weise, 100 years of football in Berlin, SVB Sportverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-328-00734-2 .
• Raphael Keppel, The German Football League 1946–1963, Edgar Hitzel Sports and Games Publishing House , 1989, ISBN 3-9802172-3-X .
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .