Rudolf Wimmer (soccer player)

Rudolf Wimmer
Personnel
birthday	January 20, 1944
place of birth	Olomouc ,  Moravia
position	goal
Juniors
Years	station
	VfB Höchst
	FC Hanau 93
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1963-1969	Kickers Offenbach	77 (0)
1969-1983	Karlsruher SC	432 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Rudolf "Rudi" Wimmer (born January 20, 1944 in Olomouc , then Moravia , now the Czech Republic ) is a former German football goalkeeper . He played a total of 185 Bundesliga games for Offenbacher Kickers and Karlsruher SC . With 470 appearances in competitive games, he is the record player of the KSC to this day .

Origin and youth

Wimmer was born in Moravia . His family moved to the Hessian village of Höchst an der Nidder during the war . Wimmer initially played as a field player in the youth of the local football club VfB Höchst , but was later ordered into goal by his coach because of his height. The young talent moved to Kickers Offenbach in 1963 through the youth of Hanauer FC 93 . The previous league team was divided into the newly created Regionalliga Süd in the year the Bundesliga was introduced .

Offenbacher Kickers (1963-1969)

The OFC was one of the top teams in this league in the first few years. After two third places in the first two seasons, the Kickers trained by Kurt Baluses qualified for the first time in second place for the promotion round to the Bundesliga in 1965/66 , but had no chance there. In the following season 1966/67 , the team around the OFC icon Hermann Nuber became runner-up in the Regionalliga Süd for the first time and then narrowly failed in the race for promotion to the western champions Aachen. A year later, the Kickers were runner-up again, and this time they qualified for the Bundesliga through the promotion games . Wimmer stood between the posts for the Kickers in all 34 Bundesliga games of the 1968/69 season . Despite significant reinforcements, the team rose after only one year in the upper house of football as the bottom of the table.

Karlsruher SC (1969–1983)

Together with his teammate Gerd Becker , Wimmer moved to Karlsruher SC in the summer of 1969 , who had also been relegated to the Regionalliga Süd a year earlier and has been coached by former Offenbach coach Kurt Baluses since then. Wimmer was planned as the new number 1 at the ex-Bundesliga club, but broke his finger in the last preparatory game, so that he was replaced by previous goalkeeper Siegfried Kessler in the first eleven games of the season . On the twelfth matchday he was in goal for the first time in a league game in a 3-0 home win against SpVgg Fürth . Wimmer was part of the fact that in his first season 1969/70 only three games were lost and the KSC moved into the promotion round as a league second. There the Badener lost luck in sporting terms, but economically reaching the promotion round was vital for the financially troubled club. In the following years the Karlsruhe team also played an important role in the regional league and knocked on the door of the House of Lords again in 1970/71 and 1972/73 - both as runners-up - but were unable to prevail in the promotion rounds. In the meantime, Wimmer had to take a break for more than half a year after breaking his arm in an away game at 1860 Munich in December 1971.

The last regional league season in 1973/74 , in which the KSC only achieved eighth place with a strongly rejuvenated squad, was disappointing, but the team coached by Carl-Heinz Rühl secured the championship title in the first season of the two-pronged 2nd Bundesliga and moved to seven years old Abstinence back into the Bundesliga. Wimmer, who had played all games in the promotion season, had to leave his place in the first Bundesliga games to Siegfried Kessler due to injury. After just two years, the KSC was relegated from the Bundesliga, but the now 33-year-old Wimmer remained loyal to the club. Three years later, in the second division season 1979/80 , the KSC returned to the first class via the relegation games against Rot-Weiss Essen . Coach Manfred Krafft continued to rely on the now 36-year-old Wimmer, so that he was still in goal in the next three Bundesliga seasons.

Wimmer stood between the posts for the KSC for 14 years and played 470 competitive games, 151 of them in the Bundesliga. To this day he is by far the club's record player. For years he was able to keep his performances at a high level and was also in goal in the Bundesliga in the 1982/83 season , during which he celebrated his 39th birthday. He played his last game on May 28, 1983; he was the oldest footballer to date to have played a game in the Bundesliga. On the following final day of that season, his successor Bernd Fuhr , who had also come to Baden from Offenbach in 1981, stood between the posts. At this point in time, KSC was already - once again - determined to be relegated.

Even if he was one of the best in his field in Germany for years, Wimmer, whose trademark was his oversized and mostly faded trousers, could not prevail against the national competition, especially Sepp Maier , and was never appointed to the national team. Offers from the first division - such as the one from the then top club 1. FC Köln , which was looking for a replacement for his national player Manfred Manglitz who was banned from the Bundesliga scandal in 1972 - Wimmer regularly turned down his current contract with KSC.

After the active career

After his active career, Wimmer took care of the KSC youngsters. Among his “pupils” was the later KSC and Bayern professional Michael Sternkopf . His son Stefan followed in his footsteps and became a soccer goalkeeper, initially with the amateurs of the KSC. In the 1987/88 season he was also in the professional squad, but could not prevail against regular goalkeeper Alexander Famulla or against Oliver Kahn, who came from the A-Jugend in 1987 , and only made a single appearance in the Bundesliga. He left the club in 1988 and played in the upper amateur area, including Rot-Weiss Frankfurt and SV Darmstadt 98 .

Rudi Wimmer was made an honorary member and honorary captain by the KSC and was awarded the City of Karlsruhe Medal of Honor in 1984.

Web links

• Rudolf Wimmer in the database of fussballdaten.de