Willy Gropp

Willy Gropp (born January 3, 1922 ) is a former German soccer player. He played first division football in Halle (Saale) , Offenbach am Main , Thale , Lübeck and Aachen . With SG Eisenhüttenwerk Thale , he won the GDR Cup in 1950.

Athletic career

Willy Gropp played in the Gauliga Mitte for the Sportfreunde Halle until 1943 . After that he was active with the Offenbacher Kickers in the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau until 1944 . With the Kickers he was Gaumeister, but was not used in the final round of the German football championship.

After the end of the Second World War , Gropp joined the Eisenhüttenwerk Thale sports club . With her he became soccer champion of Saxony-Anhalt in 1950 and achieved qualification for the GDR upper league via a promotion round . On September 3, 1950, he was a left winger with the SG EHW in the final of the GDR soccer cup . Thale won the cup with a 4-0 victory over BSG KWU Erfurt , Gropp scored the 4-0 final score.

In his first season in the GDR league in 1950/51, Gropp immediately became a regular at SG Eisenhüttenwerk, which was transformed into the company sports community (BSG) Stahl Thale during the season . Gropp played all 34 point games and, with his eleven goals, was one of the most accurate shooters in his team. Also in 1951/52 he was set as a striker and was called up in 30 of 36 league games, he came to four goals.

For the 1952/53 season Gropp left the GDR and joined the Oberliga Nord promoted team VfB Lübeck . After a year he moved to Alemannia Aachen in the Oberliga West . In the 1953/54 season Gropp was used in six league games and scored one goal. He was still part of the Alemannia squad in 1954/55, but was no longer used in the major league.

Gropp returned to Thale in the summer of 1955. BSG Stahl had already been relegated there twice and was now playing in the third-class 2nd GDR league . Willy Gropp never returned to higher-class football.

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 172.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , pp. 28, 344.

Web links

• Willy Gropp in the database of the German Football Association
• Willy Gropp in the database of weltfussball.de