Walter Rodekamp

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Walter Rodekamp (born January 13, 1941 in Hagen ; † May 10, 1998 in Hagen) was a German football player. The powerful striker mostly played center forward or on left winger and played 123 games in the Bundesliga at Hannover 96 from 1964 to 1968, in which he scored 38 goals. In May and June 1965 he came under national coach Helmut Schön to three missions in the national soccer team and scored one goal.

life and career

The young attacker began his football career at his hometown club SSV Hagen in 1952 as a youth. At the age of 20 he gained experience in the 2nd League West in the 1960/61 season ; the offensive talent came on 26 missions and scored eight goals for the relegated. After the fourth place in 1961/62 in the Association League Westphalia, Group 2 , he accepted the offer from FC Schalke 04 from the first-class football Oberliga West and moved to Gelsenkirchen. The start of the last year of the old first-class Oberliga West 1962/63 was successful: Under coach Georg Gawliczek , the newcomer from Hagen completed the first two first round matches against Bayer Leverkusen (2: 2) and Schwarz-Weiß Essen (2: 1); he stormed it on the left wing on the side of the storm colleagues Reinhard Libuda , Waldemar Gerhardt , Willi Koslowski and Werner Ipta . A severe concussion threw the breaker type with shot power and headball strength but then off course. Only the use on April 10, 1963 in a 0-1 away defeat at TSV Marl-Hüls followed. During the course of the lap, Karl-Heinz Bechmann had predominantly taken the left wing position. After three league appearances, the contract in Schalke was dissolved and Rodekamp accepted the offer from Hannover 96 from the Football Regionalliga Nord for the 1963/64 season.

In his first year in the Regionalliga Nord, the second highest division at the time, he scored 33 goals in 33 games and was therefore an outstanding player for the runner-up . In the Bundesliga promotion round, the powerful striker drew national attention with seven more goals in six games. The team of coach Helmut Kronsbein prevailed with 10: 2 points and made it to the Bundesliga. The newcomers to the start of the lap with Werner Gräber , Horst Podlasly and Rodekamp had turned out to be valuable reinforcements. Rodekamp had started the regional league season with three goals in the opening game on August 11, 1963 at Victoria Hamburg (4-0).

Rodekamp also made an impressive start in the Bundesliga: on August 22, 1964 (1st matchday) he scored the first two Bundesliga goals for Hannover 96 in a 2-0 win in the away game against Borussia Dortmund. He succeeded in his debut year in the Bundesliga ( 1964/65 ) The Hanoverians as a climber jumped to 5th place in the Bundesliga final table, which Rodekamp, ​​as a regular player, had a share in 30 league appearances with eleven goals. His shooting power was considered outstanding and at that time the fan chants: "Oh Rodekamp! Oh Rodekamp! How beautiful are your goals!" to the melody of Oh Tannenbaum . In the second Bundesliga year 1965/66 he was able to increase his hit rate to 13 goals, but his club had to be satisfied with 12th place. Then Horst Buhtz took over the coaching position in Hanover. After finishing ninth in 1966/67, the Presidium heavily upgraded the team for the 1967/68 season with the new additions Jupp Heynckes and Josip Skoblar . Rodekamp scored five goals in 32 games in this round and Hanover finished 10th in midfield. After five rounds in Hanover, the striker moved to Belgium.

From 1968 to 1974 he ended his career at RFC Liège and Berchem Sport in Antwerp .

Selection appointments

Helmut Schön conducted a test match with a DFB selection against Chelsea London on February 17, 1965 in Duisburg . In front of 30,000 spectators, the DFB formation in the attack line-up with Rudi Brunnenmeier , Heinz Strehl , Uwe Seeler , Werner Krämer and Walter Rodekamp lost the test with 0: 1. From March 8th to 13th, the attacker from Hannover 96 was part of the national team for the preparatory course for the international match in Hamburg on March 13th against Italy (1-1), but he was not yet used. Instead, on March 10, he led the attack of the B national team as a center forward , which parted with a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands. On the offensive, Rodekamp was accompanied by Rudolf Nafziger , Lothar Ulsaß , Günter Netzer , Franz Beckenbauer and Gerhard Zebrowski . On May 12th, the striker made his debut in a 0-1 home defeat against England in Nuremberg. The attack was equipped by the national coach with Karl-Heinz Thielen , Werner Krämer, Rodekamp, Wolfgang Overath and Heinz Hornig . Rodekamp played his second international match on May 26th in Basel in a 1-0 away win against Switzerland, where he scored the winning goal in the 43rd minute with a header. At the end of the 1964/65 season, the DFB made a trip to South America with an international match on June 6 in Rio de Janeiro for the then reigning world champions Brazil . The German attack in the line-up with Alfred Heiß , Krämer, Rodekamp, ​​Overath (from the 46th minute Hans Küppers ) and Reinhard Libuda could not prevail in the 0: 2 defeat. At the beginning of the 1965/66 world championship season, he came into contact with the national team for the last time during a test match between the national team against Chelsea London in front of 40,000 spectators in Essen (3-2). He acted as a center forward and scored one goal. After that he was not called back to the national team. Uwe Seeler returned after an injury, the two Dortmunders Sigfried Held and Lothar Emmerich played their way into the team and Italian legionnaire Helmut Haller also reinforced the offensive of the Schön protégés.

After the career

From 1974 to 1983 Walter Rodekamp ran the clubhouse of TuS Kleefeld in Hanover-Kleefeld .

Rodekamp was severely alcoholic and therefore only partially able to work (among other things he was employed as a crane driver) before he died in 1998. His inclination towards alcohol was well known and he never made a secret of his illness.

Honors

  • 2010: Name of the place in front of the main entrance of today's HDI-Arena in the Sportpark Hannover in Walter-Rodekamp-Platz

literature

  • Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 , p. 395 .
  • Emergency brake, Hardy Greens: The Reds. The story of Hanover 96. Verlag Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2006. ISBN 978-3-89533-537-2 .
  • 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 , p. 413.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First Bundesliga shooter from Hannover 96
  2. ↑ Conrad von Meding: Six new sporty names around the arena. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of November 16, 2010, p. 17
personal data
SURNAME Rodekamp, ​​Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Hagen
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1998
Place of death Hagen