Wolfgang Schmidt (soccer player, 1951)

Wolfgang Schmidt (born December 26, 1951 ) is a former German football player who was active in the 1970s and 1980s for fourteen years for Halleschen FC Chemie in the GDR Oberliga , the top division of GDR football . He is a multiple GDR junior national player.

Athletic career

Wolfgang Schmidt began his long career at Halleschen FC Chemie (HFC) in 1966 in its youth team. As a junior player he was appointed to the squad of the GDR junior national team in 1969 and played 16 international junior matches until 1971, in which he was mainly called up as a midfielder. In the 1969/70 season, the HFC used him in the 2nd team in the second-rate GDR leaguewas represented. There, the 1.77 m tall Schmidt played nine point games. In the following season 1970/71 he became a regular in the league team when he completed 20 of the 26 played point games and scored two goals. Until 1983 Schmidt was able to defend his regular place in the HFC league team, only in the 1979/80 season he only made 14 league appearances due to injury. From 1981 he was often used as a Libero .

On September 15, 1971 Schmidt played a UEFA Cup game with the HFC against the Dutch representative PSV Eindhoven . In the 0-0 home game he played as a midfielder. He was also part of the squad for the second leg, which was not played because the night before a fire broke out in the Halle's hotel, as a result of which HFC player Wolfgang Hoffmann was killed. 1973 Schmidt came to eight international appearances in the GDR youth national team, in which he scored one goal.

Wolfgang Schmidt played his last league season in 1983/84. On the second day of the match he suffered a double broken arm, which put him out of action for six match days. During the winter break, he again injured himself so long that he could only be used again in the last two games of the season. The HFC ended the season as relegated. For the GDR league season 1984/85 Schmidt was restored to such an extent that he could be regularly called up again from the 7th day of the game. Of the 34 league games, he continued to play 27 games as a midfielder and scored three championship goals. Also in the 1985/86 season, the HFC had to continue to play in the GDR league. Until the end of the first half of the season, Schmidt was a defender in all 17 point games, scored two more goals and then ended his career as a footballer at the age of 34. He could look back on 13 league seasons in which he had played 269 point games and scored 40 goals.

literature

• German sport echo : born 1969–1986. ISSN  0323-8628
• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 441.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , p. 320.

Web links

• Wolfgang Schmidt in the database of the German Football Association