Jürgen Sparwasser

Jürgen Sparwasser
Personal information
Date of birth 4 June 1948 (1948-06-04) (age 63)
Place of birth Halberstadt, East Germany
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
1956–1964 BSG Lokomotive Halberstadt
1965 1. FC Magdeburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1966–1979 1. FC Magdeburg 298 (133)
National team
1969–1977 East Germany 49 (14)
Teams managed
1990–1991 SV Darmstadt 98
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Jürgen Sparwasser (born 4 June 1948 in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt) is a retired German football player and later briefly a football manager.

Sparwasser started his playing career in the youth department of his hometown club BSG Lokomotive Halberstadt in 1956. In 1965 he moved to 1. FC Magdeburg where he gave his senior debut in January 1966. He would stay with the club until 1979, when a hip injury ended his career. He played in 271 DDR-Oberliga matches as a midfielder, scoring 111 goals. When Magdeburg had been relegated to the second-tier DDR-Liga at the end of the 1965–66 season, Sparwasser was an integral part in winning immediate repromotion, scoring 22 goals in 27 matches.[1] He also played 40 matches in various European competitions.[2] He was part of the team that won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1974.[3]

Between 1969 and 1977 Sparwasser played in 49 matches for East Germany, scoring 14 goals.[4] As a member of the Olympic team in 1972, he played in 7 matches and scored 5 goals. He won a shared bronze medal for his native country.[5] He also made six appearances for East Germany at the 1974 FIFA World Cup finals, where he gained fame for scoring the winning goal in politically prestigious match against West Germany.

This goal was exploited politically, but Sparwasser did not profit from it. As he said later: "Rumor had it I was richly rewarded for the goal, with a car, a house and a cash premium. But that is not true."[6] In 1988, Sparwasser fled East Germany while taking part in a veterans' tournament in West Germany.

After his playing career he had a brief managerial career, working as assistant manager at Eintracht Frankfurt in 1988 and 1989 and as head coach at SV Darmstadt 98 in 1990 and 1991.

Contents

Career statistics

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 9 July 1969 Ostseestadion, Rostock, East Germany  United Arab Republic 7-0 Win Friendly
2. 9 July 1969 Ostseestadion, Rostock, East Germany  United Arab Republic 7-0 Win Friendly
3. 19 December 1969 National Stadium, Cairo, United Arab Republic  United Arab Republic 1-3 Win Friendly
4. 16 August 1971 Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico  Mexico 0-1 Win Friendly
5. 7 October 1972 Stadion Dresden, Dresden, East Germany  Finland 5-0 Win 1974 FIFA World Cup Q.
6. 7 October 1972 Stadion Dresden, Dresden, East Germany  Finland 5-0 Win 1974 FIFA World Cup Q.
7. 8 April 1973 Ernst Grube Stadium, Magdeburg, East Germany  Albania 2-0 Win 1974 FIFA World Cup Q.
8. 13 November 1973 Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania  Albania 1-4 Win 1974 FIFA World Cup Q.
9. 23 May 1974 Ostseestadion, Rostock, East Germany  Norway 1-0 Win Friendly
10. 22 June 1974 Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, West Germany  West Germany 1-0 Win 1974 FIFA World Cup
11. 16 November 1974 Parc des Princes, Paris, France  France 2-2 Draw UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying
12. 29 July 1975 Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada  Canada 0-3 Win Friendly
13. 28 July 1977 Zentralstadion, Leipzig, East Germany  Soviet Union 2-1 Win Friendly
14. 29 October 1977 Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion, Babelsberg, East Germany  Malta 9-0 Win 1978 FIFA World Cup Q.
Correct as of 6 September 2011[7]

Honors

References