Theo Schönhöft

Theo Schönhöft (born May 9, 1932 in Steinfeld ; † July 26, 1976 ) was a German soccer player who was appointed to the German national soccer team in 1956 .

career

youth

In his youth, Theo Schönhöft played at SV Falke Steinfeld in the southern Oldenburger Münsterland . At the age of 16 he played in the league team of Falke Steinfeld.

In the 1950/51 round, the village club rose after a 7-2 win in Diepholz with six goals from Schönhöft in the Lower Saxony-West amateur league. At the age of 19 he was appointed to the Lower Saxony selection. On October 14, 1951, Steinfeld stormed alongside the Oberliga Nord players Erich Gleixner and Hans Alpert from VfL Osnabrück in a 4-2 win against Hamburg. In the Lower Saxony amateur league, he scored 28 goals in the games against Oldenburg, Nordhorn, Cuxhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Hameln, Delmenhorst and Emden in the 1951/52 round.

Schönhöft was discovered and promoted by trainer Hans Pilz. He had wanted to bring him to VfB Oldenburg in 1950 . The 18-year-old left winger made his debut there on June 11 in a 1-0 win against Schalke 04 , played in other friendly matches, was listed as a newcomer in the press at the beginning of August, but was not signed as a contract player .

VfL Osnabrück, 1952 to 1962

At the age of 20, he moved to the Oberliga Nord for VfL Osnabrück in 1952 . In the first round of the Oberliga Nord, Schönhöft had to struggle with adjustment difficulties at the side of Gleixner, Haferkamp , Meyer and Vetter due to the increased training and game requirements. He came in the 1952/53 round to 18 missions with six goals. He scored his first goal on January 4, 1953, when VfL Osnabrück won 3-1 away at Concordia Hamburg. The round in 1953/54 brought the breakthrough for Theo Schönhöft. VfL slipped to 12th place and the man on the left wing played all 30 association games and scored 15 goals. In the year after the football world championship in 1954 in Switzerland in 1954/55, Schönhöft continued its positive development. Again he was in all league games for VfL Osnabrück and scored 18 goals as a winger. The fast and powerful goalscorer was at the height of his skills at the age of 24. He had contributed 20 goals in 30 games for VfL in the 1955/56 round. Because of the end of the career of the former top performers Gleixner, Haferkamp and Vetter, Schönhöft could not move into the finals of the German football championship with VfL Osnabrück .

National soccer team 1956

The association round 1955/56 in the Oberliga Nord ended the VfL Osnabrück with a catch-up game on April 29, 1956 against VfL Wolfsburg. Theo Schönhöft contributed three hits to the 4-2 win, increasing his round account to 20 goals. The final round of the soccer championship took place in May / June; the national team played international matches with the B and A national teams. National coach Sepp Herberger used Schönhöft in a test match for the B national team on May 25, 1956 in Berlin against a city selection. In the 5-2 victory of the B national team on May 31st in Barcelona against Spain, Schönhöft was on the bench. Herberger nominated him for the international match on June 13, 1956 in Oslo against Norway. The national team's last three games had previously been lost 2-1 to Italy, 2-1 to Holland and 3-1 to England. In Oslo, Günter Sawitzki debuted in goal , Herbert Dörner in the runner row and Erich Bäumler and Theo Schönhöft in attack on both wing positions . With Karl Mai , only one player from the 1954 world championship was left on the field. Schönhöft scored the 1-1 equalizer with a direct shot after Willi Schröder presented in the 28th minute of the game. Germany won the game with 3-1 goals. On August 11, 1956, he played in Hanover for Northern Germany in the game against West Germany. In the 4: 3 victory of the north, the VfL striker scored three goals.

Accident in 1958

In the round 1957/58 he scored 16 goals, the round 1958/59 ended for him with the game on November 30, 1958 at 1. FC Phoenix Lübeck . Theo Schönhöft had a serious accident on December 1, 1958 between Bad Iburg and Glandorf on an icy road on the way to the final exams for teaching at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . He suffered a fractured skull base.

Theo Schönhöft played the last game for VfL Osnabrück in the Oberliga Nord on November 5, 1961 in a 2-1 home win against VfR Neumünster. After the round in 1961/62 he ended the league chapter. From 1952 to 1962 he played 207 games and 95 goals in the Oberliga Nord for VfL Osnabrück. In four rounds (1953/54, 1954/55, 1955/56, 1957/58) he was the best scorer of the season for the purple-whites.

Trainer

In 1962 Schönhöft returned to Steinfeld, where he worked as a player-coach for the Falken.

Theo Schönhöft, who had meanwhile become a secondary school teacher, died in July 1976 at the age of 44 as a result of his serious accident.

literature

• Hardy Greens : From the Crown Prince to the Bundesliga . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 1 . AGON, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 .
• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's football. The encyclopedia. Sportverlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00857-8 .
• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
• Jens Reimer Prüß (Ed.): Bung bottle with flat pass cork. The history of the Oberliga Nord 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-463-1 .
• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Jürgen Bitter: Purple and white. The football history of VfL Osnabrück. Self-published, Osnabrück 1991.
• Harald Pistorius: We are all part of VfL Osnabrück , there in 2000.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sport Niedersachsen No. 47 of June 12, 1950 and thereafter.
2. ↑ Tore as in Pistorius, p. 151. There are different counts.

Web link

Players A – Z (bung bottle) , visited on March 17, 2020