Theodor Hoffmann (soccer player)

Theodor Hoffmann (born July 5, 1940 in Östringen ; † October 31, 2011 ) was a German football player . In the Oberliga Süd , Hoffmann came with VfB Stuttgart from 1960 to 1963 to a total of 55 games, in which he scored four goals. In the Bundesliga he played 160 games for Stuttgart from 1963 to 1970, scoring ten goals. With 25 league appearances, he ended his professional career in 1970/71 in the Austrian national league at SK Rapid Wien .

career

The defensive player came from FC Östringen to VfB Stuttgart in 1959 from the North Baden amateur area , where his older brother Rudolf Hoffmann was still active. Theo made his debut on September 11, 1960 in the away game against VfR Mannheim (2: 3) in the Oberliga Süd. Trainer Kurt Baluses , Georg Wurzer's successor , had the 20-year-old run as a left wing runner in the World Cup system that was practiced at the time. Striker Erwin Waldner had left the Swabians for FC Zurich and VfB finished seventh in the table at the end of the round. Theo Hoffmann had played nine league games. From his second round, 1961/62, he belonged with 27 league appearances and four goals to the VfB core formation, which reached fifth place. The best goal scorers were Rolf Geiger and Manfred Reiner with 14 goals each and Theo Hoffmann was appointed to the German U-23 team by national coach Sepp Herberger on October 24, 1962 in Lyon in an international match against France (0: 1) . The last league game he played with VfB on May 5, 1963 in a catch-up game against Kickers Offenbach (1: 1). From the 1963/64 season, the central soccer league was started.

VfB therefore invested in newcomers: there were returnees Rolf Geiger (Mantua) and Erwin Waldner (Ferrara), as well as Hans Arnold from VfR Mannheim and Gerd Menne from FSV Frankfurt. On the day the Bundesliga started on August 24, 1963, Hoffmann led the VfB defensive as a middle runner. VfB lost 2-0 at FC Schalke 04. Hoffmann and colleagues ended the first Bundesliga round on May 9, 1964 with a 2-1 defeat away from the first Bundesliga champions 1. FC Köln. The Red-Whites from Stuttgart took fifth place and Hoffmann had scored five goals in 28 league appearances. In the second Bundesliga year, 1964/65, Hoffmann and colleagues saw the dismissal of the previous coach Baluses on February 24, 1965; VfB was 11th after 22 games with 18:26 points, one point ahead of FC Schalke 04, which was penultimate (15th place). After Franz Seybold helped out on an interim basis (February 25th to March 7th), the former coach of Meidericher SV, Rudi Gutendorf , took over the post at VfB Stuttgart on March 8th . VfB won their first home game under Gutendorf on March 27th in front of 60,000 spectators 3-0 against 1860 Munich, which belonged to the top of the Bundesliga and in the European Cup Winners' Cup against Legia Warsaw (4-0, 0-0) in the quarter-finals for the Had qualified in the semifinals. With goalkeeper Günter Sawitzki and Hans Eisele , Rudi Entenmann , Klaus-Dieter Sieloff and Eberhard Pfisterer , Hoffmann formed the secure VfB defense against star strikers from Munich such as Alfred Heiss , Hans Küppers , Rudolf Brunnenmeier and Peter Grosser . At the end of the round, Stuttgart finished 12th with 26:34 points and Hoffmann had scored four goals in 23 Bundesliga appearances.

Gutendorf did not get out of mediocrity with VfB and was therefore replaced in the 1966/67 round from December 14, 1966 by the old international Albert Sing . With Gilbert Gress (Racing Strasbourg) and Bo Larsson (Malmö FF) first-class international newcomers came to Stuttgart and the two highly talented offensive forces Horst Köppel and Karl-Heinz Handschuh were taken over from the youth into the license squad. The 18th place with 11:21 points after the 16th first round matchday (December 10, 1966) was clearly not enough, that didn't speak for coach Gutendorf. After the coaching change, the 12th place was reached, but Gunther Baumann was again a new coach for VfB for the 1967/68 season. Theo Hoffmann came in handy, with 33 missions under Baumann he was clearly part of the regular line-up again and VfB reached eighth place. In the second Baumann year, 1968/69, Stuttgart even mixed at the top of the table after a 3-0 home win on March 15, 1969 in front of 74,000 spectators against league leaders FC Bayern Munich. One point behind FC Bayern, VfB finished second with 33:19 points. Hoffmann was able to eliminate scorer Gerd Müller as head of defense and made 31 appearances during the season. After the Bayern game, Stuttgart collapsed and only got three plus points until the end of the round. With 36:22 points, they finished the round in 5th place. Theo Hoffmann's last year at VfB was unsatisfactory in 1969/70; under coach Franz Seybold he only made 14 missions and VfB took 7th place. After a total of 160 Bundesliga appearances with ten goals, he stopped playing at VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 1970 and moved to Austria for SK Rapid Vienna .

In the 1970/71 season he finished 3rd with Rapid in the Austrian National League. Hoffmann had played in 25 games. With teammates like Jørn Bjerregaard , Rudolf Flögel and Hans Buzek , he made it to the final in the cup . He lost that with Rapid with 1: 2 after extra time against FK Austria Wien . In the mid-1970s he came back to his home town Östringen, but no longer played actively at FC Östringen.

literature

• Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 9: Player Lexicon 1963-1994. Bundesliga, regional league, 2nd league. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN 978-3-89784-214-4 , pp. 208-209.
• Hardy Greens: With the ring on your chest. The history of VfB Stuttgart. Publishing house Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2007. ISBN 978-3-89533-593-8 . P. 100.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Theodor Hoffmann. Retrieved February 28, 2019 . 
2. ^ Karn, Rehberg: Spiellexikon 1963-1994. Pp. 208/209

Web links

• Theodor Hoffmann at hefleswetzkick.de