Thomas Graf (soccer player)

Thomas Graf
Personnel
birthday	June 25, 1966
place of birth	Friedrichsthal ,  Germany
position	goalkeeper
Juniors
Years	station
1972-1983	SC Friedrichsthal
1983-1985	1. FC Kaiserslautern
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1985-1987	1. FC Kaiserslautern	5 (0)
1987	Chicago Sting
1987-1988	Odense BK
	FC 08 Homburg
	SV 07 Elversberg
	SC Friedrichsthal
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	Germany U-16
	Germany U-21
1 Only league games are given.

Thomas Graf (born June 25, 1966 in Friedrichsthal ) is a former German soccer goalkeeper who also worked in the USA and Denmark .

Youth career

Thomas Graf began his career at the age of six at SC Friedrichsthal . In 1983 he moved - already a U-16 national goalkeeper - to the A youth team of 1. FC Kaiserslautern and a year later stood with his team in the final of the German youth championship , which was lost 3-1 to VfB Stuttgart . Graf had his first contact with professional football when he was a youth player when he sat on the Bundesliga team's bench for the first time on matchday 30 of the 1984/85 season. This was made possible by the fact that number 1 Gerry Ehrmann was injured, the actual number 2 Roland Grüner had left the club in October 1984 and Armin Reichel was in goal.

Career

In the 1985/86 season Graf was number 2 behind Gerry Ehrmann. At that time he was also appointed to the U-21 national team together with Bodo Illgner . He came to his first Bundesliga game on the 25th matchday of this season. Ehrmann suffered a bruised chest in the game against Bayer 05 Uerdingen and was replaced at halftime by Graf, who scored a goal. Nevertheless, it was used four more times over the next few weeks. At the beginning of the 1986/87 season he had to undergo a groin operation, so that amateur goalkeeper Michael Serr took his place on the bench. For the unexcused absence from a test match in Darmstadt, Graf received a warning and three months later he was thrown out because he did not appear for an agreed meeting with President Jürgen Friedrich .

Graf's path led to Chicago Sting in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for three months . After this engagement he moved to Denmark to Odense BK for a year and then back to Germany, where he played for the amateur clubs FC 08 Homburg , SV Elversberg and his home club SC Friedrichsthal in Saarland .

successes

• 1984 German A youth runner-up

Web links

• Thomas Graf in the database of fussballdaten.de

literature

• BF Hoffmann : The great lexicon of the Bundesliga keepers. More than 300 biographies - from the beginning to the present. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-526-0 .