Roland Nowotny

Roland Nowotny (born October 5, 1947 ) was a soccer player in the area of ​​the GDR soccer association . In its highest division, the Oberliga , Nowotny played for Halleschen FC Chemie and BSG Chemie Buna Schkopau . He played a total of 36 international matches for the GDR junior and junior national team.

Soccer career

Young players

In 1965, Roland Nowotny was delegated by the company sports association (BSG) Chemie Zeitz to the regional football focus SC Chemie Halle. At this point he had already played three international matches with the GDR junior national team. As a left winger, he scored a goal in the 3-2 victory over England, with which the GDR juniors won the UEFA junior tournament, the unofficial junior European championship, on April 25, 1965 . By 1966 Nowotny was used in a total of 15 junior internationals, in which he scored five goals. Immediately afterwards he was taken over into the youth national team, for which he played 21 international matches until 1971 and scored six goals.

Hallescher FC Chemie

In the meantime, the football section of SC Chemie in Halle had been spun off in early 1966 and converted into Halleschen FC Chemie (HFC). In the 1966/67 season , the 1.77 m tall Nowotny was used for the first time in the league. He initially played the first eight point games, mainly as a left winger. But then he was ousted by Bernd Gebes and was only used three times in the second half of the season. It was only in the 1968/69 season that Nowotny managed to play in the starting eleven when he played 25 of the 26 point games played. He occupied a wide variety of positions in the attack. 1969/70 he was the top scorer of the HFC with ten goals and landed third on the league scorer list. The 1970/71 season closed the HFC with third place and thus the best league result since the club was founded. Nowotny was involved with 18 point games and three goals. With third place, the HFC had qualified for the UEFA Cup competition 1971/72 . In the first round, the Halle residents had to play against the Dutch representative PSV Eindhoven at home. At 0-0 Nowotny was the right striker on the field. The return match did not take place, as the HFC player Wolfgang Hoffmann was killed in the fire in the team quarters and the HFC then withdrew its team from the competition. In the league season 1972/73 Nowotny played for the first time all 26 point games, and although he was transferred to midfield in the second half of the season, he was one of the most dangerous players with five goals. At the end of the season, the HFC was determined to be relegated and had to play in the second-rate GDR league for a year . There, Nowotny was one of the assets, played 25 of the 30 point and promotion games and scored five goals again. The league season 1975/76 he could only complete until the 18th matchday. After he had played all the point games by then, he was drafted into military service for six months. Then he was no longer able to assert himself permanently in the HFC league team. From February 1976 to the end of the 1977/78 season , he was only used 34 times in the 65 point games played, of which he played only seven games over the full distance. After 222 championship games with 40 goals, Nowotny announced his retirement from competitive sport in the summer of 1978.

BSG Chemie Buna Schkopau

Half a year later, Nowotny reappeared in the GDR league. After only six wins in the previous 14 match days of the 1978/79 season, the BSG Chemie Buna Schkopau was urgently looking for a player to shape the game and was able to persuade Nowotny to return to football. After a third place in 1979 and fourth the following year , the Schkopauers surprisingly succeeded in advancing to the top division in the 1980/81 season . Nowotny had played 28 of the 30 GDR league games played, and 13 of the 43 goals scored were his. In 1981/82 , the now 33-year-old, now qualified as an industrial foreman, completed his eleventh league season. In the end, he was one of the three players who had played all 26 point games, and his four goals were the best within the team. For Schkopau it was not enough to keep up, so Nowotny had to relegate for the second time in his football career. Nevertheless, he stayed with Chemie Buna in the GDR league until the end of the 1983/84 season , after which he finally withdrew from competitive football

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 .