Walter Lang (soccer player)

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Walter Lang (born June 1, 1925 ; † 2016 ) was a German football player. From 1952 to 1963, the midfielder played 288 league games for 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 in what was then the first-class soccer Oberliga Süd and scored 17 goals. The player, mostly used as the left wing runner in the World Cup system , was a model of reliability and, through his tireless commitment, was a constant driving force in the zero-five formation in the upper league era.

career

Walter Lang only came to the former Gauligist Schweinfurt 05 via the FC Bayern Hof station at the age of 27 for the 1952/53 season from the 2nd League South. He still played with the likes of Andreas Kupfer as player-coach, "Molli" Kupfer , Erwin Aumeier and Ludwig Merz together. In addition to the newcomer from Hof, Alfred Burkhardt (Michelau) and Heinz Rath (the former Saalfelder from Werder Bremen) came to the ball-bearing city in Lower Franconia. With the team from the Willy Sachs Stadium , the “runner with a big lung” was continuously active in the highest league in southern Germany for eleven years. As a 37-year-old veteran, he finished after the 1962/63 season - it was the last year of the old first class of the major league and before the new league structure with the football Bundesliga and the second division by the regional regional leagues - after another 17 major league appearances with a total of 288 major league appearances ( 17 goals) his playing career.

He made his debut on August 24, 1952 in a 1: 2 home defeat against Viktoria Aschaffenburg as a left wing runner in the Oberliga Süd. The other newcomers Burkhardt and Rath also made their debut. With 28 league appearances (two goals) he immediately belonged to the regular line-up and Schweinfurt reached 5th place in the final ranking in the last round of Andreas Kupfer.

His best result of the season with Schweinfurt was achieved by Lang under coach Fritz Teufel in the 1954/55 round , when the zero five finished third with the same number of points as runner-up SSV Reutlingen. Lower Franconia started the round on August 22, 1954 at Karlsruher SC with an 8-2 defeat. After the first half of the season, Lang and colleagues were eighth with 15:15 points. In the second half of the season, 22:8 points were scored with 27:18 goals and thus reached third place. The left wing runner Lang had played all 30 games and scored three goals. At the end of the round on May 1, 1955, with a 2-0 home win against SpVgg Fürth, he formed the runner row with “Molli” and Karl Kupfer. There was no money for star purchases in Schweinfurt, the club had already had to nibble at the introduction of contract players. Most of the entries came from the Franconian amateur sector. Nevertheless, Lang and colleagues reached the South German Cup final twice in a row in 1957 and 1958: Both finals went against FC Bayern Munich on June 26, 1957 in Munich with 1: 4 and on June 25, 1958 in Mannheim against VfB Stuttgart lost 1: 2; the two final opponents Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart each won the DFB Cup .

When the era of the first-class league drew to a close, Schweinfurt went into the lower regions in the table; In 1961 and 1962 the men around Senior Lang and the successors Günter Bernard , Robert Gehling , Heinz Krämer , Rolf Schweighöfer , Helmut Kraus and Rolf Kupfer saved themselves just one point ahead of the league-retaining 14th place. When in the last league season 1962/63 under the former zero-five goalkeeper Fritz Käser the 11th place was reached as coach, Walter Lang, who was shortly before the 38th year of birth, again had his share in 17 league games.

literature

  • Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963 . AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
  • Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963 . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ mainpost.de: Walter Lang died at the age of 90 (May 2, 2016) , accessed on January 1, 2018
  2. ^ Matthias Weinrich, Hardy Greens: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 6: German Cup history since 1935. Pictures, statistics, stories, constellations. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-146-0 , pp. 147, 153.
personal data
SURNAME Long, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1925
DATE OF DEATH 2016