Wolfgang Kleff

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Wolfgang Kleff
Personnel
birthday November 16, 1946
place of birth Schwerte ,  Germany
size 180 cm
position goal
Juniors
Years station
1952-1965 VfL Schwerte
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1965-1968 VfL Schwerte
1968-1979 Borussia Monchengladbach 272 (0)
1979-1980 Hertha BSC 33 (0)
1980-1982 Borussia Monchengladbach 49 (0)
1982-1984 Fortuna Dusseldorf 59 (0)
1984-1985 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 31 (0)
1985-1986 VfL Bochum 20 (0)
1986-1987 FSV Salmrohr 25 (0)
1987-1992 SV Straelen 58 (0)
1999-2000 KFC Uerdingen 05 0 (0)
2007-2008 1. FC Rheinbach 1 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1971-1973 Germany 6 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Wolfgang Kleff (born November 16, 1946 in Schwerte ) is a former German soccer goalkeeper . He won with Borussia Moenchengladbach in 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1977, five times the German championship , in 1973 the DFB - and in 1975 and 1979, the UEFA Cup .

career

Youth and career in Mönchengladbach, 1954 to 1982

From his parents' apartment on Lohbachstrasse in Schwerte, the student Wolfgang Kleff had direct eye contact with the “Schützenhof” run by the local football club VfL Schwerte . His father was a youth warden there and his son Wolfgang went through all the stations in the youth department and also made his first competitive experience at VfL in the senior team. After a year in the reserve team, he became a regular in the goal of the first team and distinguished himself through outstanding performance in the Westphalia Association. The responsiveness of the 1.80 m tall keeper was particularly impressive. One of his trainers there was Bernhard Wessel . The trial training with trainer Hennes Weisweiler , which came about through the mediation of the Westphalian association trainer Walter Ochs , then led to a licensed player contract with the Lower Rhine Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1968/69 for the trained industrial clerk . Weisweiler signed him as a substitute behind the Borussia goalkeeper Volker Danner .

Kleff made nine appearances in the Bundesliga in his debut year . Mönchengladbach finished third in the final table for the second year in a row, behind champions Bayern Munich and runner-up Alemannia Aachen. The man from Schwerte, junior goalkeeper Kleff, made his Bundesliga debut on matchday 5, September 7, 1968, in the home game against the second from Aachen. Regular goalkeeper Danner was injured while warming up and Kleff came surprisingly quickly to his first Bundesliga appearance. The ex-amateur had just lost ten kilograms through the tough daily professional training. The game ended 2-2 in a draw, Kleff then had to move back to the second link. Five months later, on February 8, 1969, he made his second Bundesliga appearance, again against Aachen of all places. A hint for the following round were then Kleff's six games in a row at the end of the round.

In fact, he was promoted to goalkeeper by coach Weisweiler from his second year in Gladbach, 1969/70 . Kleff was in the goal of the "Fohlen" -Elf in all 34 games and the team from Bökelberg celebrated their first win of the German championship with a goal difference of 71:29 goals. The goalkeeper change was not the only guarantee for the defensive class - the newcomers Ludwig Müller and Klaus-Dieter Sieloff made a big contribution to the central defense - but the goalkeeper's rating of 2.79 was one of the building blocks for success. As the first Bundesliga team, Mönchengladbach was able to defend the title of German champion in 1970/71 . Again Kleff guarded the goal of the defending champion in all 34 league games. The Bundesliga season ended with 77:35 goals and two points ahead of FC Bayern Munich. In addition, Kleff had demonstrated his present international class in the competition of the European Champions' Cup , especially in the second leg against the English title holder FC Everton on November 4, 1970 in Goodison Park there. After the unfortunate elimination through the 1-1 draw after extra time on penalties, he received brilliant reviews and was highlighted as the "hero of the evening". National coach Helmut Schön rewarded him with his first appointment to the national team . In the international match on June 22, 1971 in Oslo against Norway Kleff made his national team debut.

In the 1971/72 season, the three dramatic games in the European Cup against Inter Milan stood out. The “dream game” on October 20, 1971 at home in Bökelberg with the 7-1 win, was unfortunately followed by the 0-0 draw on December 1, 1971 in Berlin.

In 1972 he was a member of the DFB squad for the European Championship from June 14th to 18th in Belgium. The team around Franz Beckenbauer , Günter Netzer and Gerd Müller won the title after playing impressive performances. As in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Sepp Maier , Kleff's big rival from FC Bayern, guarded the goal of the German team and could not be ousted by the keeper from Mönchengladbach.

In the 1972/73 season he stood in May 1973 with the Weisweiler team in the two final games of the UEFA Cup against Liverpool . At Anfield Road he could not prevent the 3-0 defeat against the "Reds". On June 23, he had the opportunity to win a trophy in the DFB Cup in the Lower Rhine. The German cup final against 1. FC Köln took place in Düsseldorf. Gladbach won the game with 2-1 goals after extra time. The final went down in the annals as one of the “best, most playful and exciting in the history of this competition”. Both goalkeepers - Gerhard Welz (Cologne) and Kleff - were credited with an outstanding performance.

In the first half of the 1973/74 World Cup, from September to November 1973, Kleff played four international matches in a row, scratching Sepp Maier's pedestal. In the spring of the return series, the balance of power in the national team shifted again. Maier went into the 1974 World Cup tournament as the clear number one and Schalke 04's man, Norbert Nigbur , even contested second place for Kleff.

Nevertheless, he was the third goalkeeper in the German national team to win the World Cup - together with the others in the team - on September 23, 1974, the Silver Laurel Leaf.

With Gladbach followed an outstanding round in 1974/75 . The championship was won with a lead of six points and a goal difference of 86:40 goals and Kleff had played all 34 games. In addition, the team of coach Weisweiler won with their goalkeeper after two final matches against FC Twente Enschede the UEFA Cup 1975 . His streak at Borussia lasted until the end of the round in 1975/76 under the new coach Udo Lattek . The goalkeeper, who was known as a joker and called "Otto" - also contributed to his astonishing resemblance to the extremely popular comedian Otto Waalkes at the time - but was very consistent and ambitious in training and dealt with minor wounds in pain April 1969 to June 12, 1976 in the Bundesliga to 244 games in a row. For more than seven years, Kleff stood between the posts for the successful Bökelberg team in league operations.

Outstanding for the goalkeeper were also the two games in the quarter-finals against Real Madrid in the 1975/76 European Cup . Paul Breitner and Günter Netzer participated in the “Royal” and referee Leonardus van der Kroft played an at least unfortunate role in the elimination of the Bökelbergelf on March 17, 1976 in the Bernabeu Stadium in front of 120,000 spectators.

In the run-up to the 1976/77 season he suffered a groin injury and lost his place to goalkeeping giant Wolfgang Kneib, who was brought from Wiesbaden . For the 1979/80 round he therefore moved to the Spree and was again a regular goalkeeper in the Bundesliga at Hertha BSC . His long-time teammate Jupp Heynckes brought the veteran back to the Bökelberg for two years as a coach in 1980 and Kleff completed 34 missions in the 1981/82 round. After 321 Bundesliga appearances, 40 DFB Cup and 57 European Cup games, it was finally over for Wolfgang Kleff in Mönchengladbach in the summer of 1982.

As a goalkeeper "oldie", 1982 to 2008

But his career was far from over. It was followed by Bundesliga stations at Fortuna Düsseldorf (1982-1984) and VfL Bochum (1985/86), interrupted by a round in the 2nd Bundesliga at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (1984/85; 31 games; his teammate Manfred Burgsmüller became the top scorer in the 2nd Bundesliga with 29 goals). In Düsseldorf the goalkeeper “oldie” had to deal with the coaches Jörg Berger and Willibert Kremer , and when he stepped in for the injured Ralf Zumdick in Bochum, he dealt with coach Rolf Schafstall . Bochum finished ninth in 1985/86 and striker Stefan Kuntz took the top scorer's crown with 22 goals.

After his time in Bochum, the almost 40-year-old Kleff even jumped again in the 2nd Bundesliga at FSV Salmrohr . On the 14th matchday of the 1986/87 season, on October 31, 1986, he made his debut in the 1-1 home draw against Arminia Bielefeld in the bottom of the table. The season ended with Kleff's decision to end the active period. At the end, however, he played for some time in amateur clubs, for example 1987-1992 at SV Straelen . At the age of 54, he was a substitute goalkeeper in the squad of the then regional league team KFC Uerdingen 05 in 2000 . On March 9, 2008, Kleff, aged 61, played another 35 minutes in the Mittelrhein regional league for 1. FC Rheinbach against TuS Oberpleis.

Wolfgang Kleff played in 433 Bundesliga games and 56 games in the second division during his career.

Today Kleff lives in Mönchengladbach- Rheydt .

successes

Others

  • His similarity and friendship with the German comedian and actor Otto Waalkes led to his nickname "Otto" and several appearances in films such as Otto - The film as a hairdresser Mr. Astrid in 1985 and in Werner - Beinhart! 1990.
  • Wolfgang Kleff runs a football school in the Mönchengladbach area.

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 .
  • Holger Jenrich, Markus Aretz: The Elf from the Lower Rhine. Borussia Mönchengladbach has been in the Bundesliga for 40 years . Publishing house Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2005; ISBN 3-89533-503-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Wessel on the blog fliggwerk from May 2016 , accessed on May 31, 2019
  2. ^ Ulrich Merk, André Schulin, Maik Großmann: Bundesliga Chronicle 1969/70 . AGON Verlag, Kassel 2007; ISBN 978-3-89784-089-8 ; P. 188.
  3. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Wolfgang Kleff - International Appearances . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. September 23, 2015. Accessed October 9, 2015.
  4. ^ 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 , p. 272.
  5. ↑ DFB News: Article by Udo Muras: Heroes of Bern, losers from Brussels .... 23 September ... 40 years ago, world champions Germany was honored: the entire squad received the silver laurel leaf from Federal President Walter Scheel in Bonn ... .
  6. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Wolfgang Kleff - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. September 23, 2015. Accessed October 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Kleff before comeback . MIRROR ONLINE. July 8, 1999. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  8. ↑ At 61! Kleff is celebrating a comeback . Express. March 9, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Kleff, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Swords