Günter Netzer

Günter Netzer

Netzer in 2005.
Personal information
Full name Günter Theodor Netzer
Date of birth (1944-09-14) 14 September 1944
Place of birth Mönchengladbach, Germany
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position Attacking Midfielder
Youth career
1952–1963 1. FC Mönchengladbach
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1963–1973 Borussia Mönchengladbach 297 (108)
1973–1976 Real Madrid 85 (9)
1976–1977 Grasshopper Club Zürich 26 (3)
Total 408 (120)
National team
1965–1975 West Germany 37 (6)
Teams managed
1977-1985 Hamburger SV (general manager)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Günter Theodor Netzer (born 14 September 1944 in Mönchengladbach) is a former German football player and team general manager currently working in the media business. As a player, he was considered to be one of the greatest passers in the game's history.[1] As such, he was voted Footballer of the Year in Germany twice, in 1972 and 1973.[2]

Club career

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Netzer, the son of a greengrocer,[3] played for 1. FC Mönchengladbach from the age of eight until 19 before switching to city rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1963.[1] He scored on his debut against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, and quickly established himself as a first team regular, helping the club win promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965.

Netzer played for Borussia until 1973.[1] In his 230 Bundesliga games for them, he scored 82 goals.[4] The era also saw one of the most competitive rivalry in Bundesliga's history between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich had Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Paul Breitner and Sepp Maier on their side while Mönchengladbach had Berti Vogts, Herbert Wimmer, Jupp Heynckes and Günter Netzer himself. As they achieved their first successes, the average age of both teams was 21.

With Borussia Mönchengladbach he won the Bundesliga in 1970 and 1971 (the first Bundesliga club to win back-to-back championships), and the DFB-Pokal in 1973.[1] The final was a famous match against 1. FC Köln in which he started as a sub and went onto the pitch during extra time, on his own authority, simply telling the coach "I'll go and play now" whilst removing his tracksuit.[1][5] He then went on to score the winning goal with only his second contact three minutes later.[1]

Real Madrid

When Johan Cruyff joined FC Barcelona in 1973, Real Madrid needed to respond in kind. So Santiago Bernabéu signed him and Paul Breitner a year later. Netzer played in Spain until 1976, winning La Liga in 1975 and 1976 and the Copa del Rey in 1974 and 1975. After his three-year spell in the Spanish capital, Netzer joined Grasshopper Club Zürich where he finished his career in 1977.[1]

German national team

Netzer made his debut for the West German national team in October 1965 in a friendly against Austria. He represented West Germany 37 times[6] from 1965 to 1975, scoring six goals and playing a vital role in the country's victory at UEFA Euro 1972. He also appeared briefly (for 21 minutes against East Germany) in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, during which time the goal was scored against his team. At the tournament, Wolfgang Overath was the central figure in Germany's midfield;[1] Netzer, despite being friends with Overath, considered the pair as not being able to play together.[7]

Netzer was a playmaker and is considered one of the best midfielders of all time, gaining a lot of attention with his long passes and pushes from deep within his own half of the pitch.[1] Apart from his superior ball skills, his natural authority made him the undisputed leader of his team.[1] As a player for Borussia Mönchengladbach, he enjoyed a lot of freedom from the management and the coach Hennes Weisweiler, even off the pitch.[1]

International goals

Scores and results table. Germany's goal tally first:
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 22 November 1970 Athens, Greece  Greece 1–0 3–1 Friendly
2. 12 June 1971 Karlsruhe, Germany  Albania 1–0 2–0 UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying
3. 22 June 1971 Oslo, Norway  Norway 7–0 7–1 Friendly
4. 8 September 1971 Hanover, Germany  Mexico 4–0 5–0 Friendly
5. 29 April 1972 London, UK  England 2–1 3–1 UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying
6. 15 November 1972 Düsseldorf, Germany   Switzerland 4–0 5–1 Friendly

Hamburger SV

After his career as a player Netzer offered to publish Hamburger SV's stadium magazine.[1][3] The president, Paul Benthien, agreed on the condition that he also became general manager.[3] He spent eight successful years in Hamburg, during which time he completely transformed Hamburg's team, managed to sign famous coaches like Ernst Happel and later Branko Zebec, and led the club to three Bundesliga titles (1979, 1982, 1983).[3] In 1983, Hamburg reached the final of the European Cup. With Horst Hrubesch, Felix Magath and Manfred Kaltz, Hamburg pulled off one of the biggest upsets in European Cup history by beating a Juventus side packed with Italian players who had won the World Cup a year earlier and two star import players – Michel Platini and Zbigniew Boniek. The years with Günter Netzer are today considered the most successful period in Hamburg's history.[1]

Honours

As player

Club

Borussia Mönchengladbach[8]
Real Madrid[8]

Country

West Germany[8]

Personal

As general manager

Club

Hamburger SV

Media businessman and football expert

After the end of his playing career, Netzer founded an advertising agency in Zürich, Switzerland, where he continues to live.[2] He also deals in TV rights and is currently executive director of the Swiss sports rights managing agency Infront Sports & Media AG, a partner company of the German Football Association.[1][5]

Apart from that, Netzer worked as a reporter and football pundit on TV. For his work with the German TV channel ARD and host Gerhard Delling, commenting on games of the German national team, both received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award in 2000.[1][3]

Despite their frequent arguments on TV, which they have developed into a kind of iconic skit, Netzer and Delling are supposedly close friends – after all, Netzer was Delling's best man at his wedding in May 2003.[10][11]

It was the duo's harsh criticism of the German national side's poor performance that triggered Rudi Völler's famous eruption on 6 September 2003, immediately after the international match against Iceland. The then Bundestrainer showered Netzer with abuse in a live interview after the goalless draw.[12]

Following the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Netzer announced he was leaving the ARD after 13 years.[11][12][13]

Netzer is married and has one daughter.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Kops, Calle (14 September 2009). "Günter Netzer – Der "Rebell am Ball" wird 65". Deutsche Welle (in German). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 "ARD-Fußballexperte". ARD (in German). 3 May 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jungholt, Thorsten; Roettger, Knud-Philip (13 October 2002). "Netzer, der ewige Spielmacher". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  4. ↑ Arnhold, Matthias (31 August 2012). "Günter Theodor Netzer - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Günter Netzer feierte seinen 65. Geburtstag". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 17 September 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  6. ↑ Arnhold, Matthias (13 March 2014). "Günter Netzer - International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  7. ↑ Röttgen, Kurt (29 April 2008). "Das albanische Grauen". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). p. 2. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Netzer: Gladbach's rebel genius". FIFA. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Meldung 24 05 2016". www.hall-of-fame-sport.de. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  10. ↑ "Delling heiratet, Netzer ist Trauzeuge". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 30 May 2003. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  11. 1 2 Praschl, Peter (10 July 2010). "Kein Geraunze mehr: Das Ende eines deutschen Traumpaars". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  12. 1 2 Krull, Patrick (8 July 2010). "Joachim Löw darf das Paradies nicht verlassen". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  13. ↑ Hanfeld, Michael (12 July 2010). "Genug geredet". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
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