Joe Enochs

Joe Enochs
Personal information
Full nameJoseph Andew Enochs
Date of birthSeptember 1, 1971
Place of birthPetaluma, California, United States
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing positionMidfielder
Youth career
1989–1992Sacramento State
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1993–1994San Francisco United All Blacks
1994–1996FC St. Pauli0(0)
1996–2008VfL Osnabrück359(10)
National team
2001United States1(0)
Teams managed
2011VfL Osnabrück
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Joseph "Joe" Enochs (born September 1, 1971, in Petaluma, California) is a retired American soccer player who spent the majority of his career at German Second Division club VfL Osnabrück. He began his professional career with the San Francisco United All Blacks before moving to Germany to sign with FC St. Pauli. He never played for the first team and moved to Osnabrück in 1996. Enochs earned one cap with the United States national team in 2001.

College

Enochs attended California State University, Sacramento, where he played soccer from 1989 to 1992. He finished his four years at Sac State with nine goals and fifteen assists in seventy-one games.[1]

Club career

All Blacks

After finishing his career with Sac State, Enochs signed with the U.S. Third Division (USISL) San Francisco United All Blacks and played until the summer of 1994.

St. Pauli

In 1994, Enochs received a phone call from a former Sac State teammate Mark Baena. Baena was playing in Germany and was looking for a roommate. Enochs decided to take Baena up on his offer and moved to Germany. Enochs later explained, "I was going to come home after the first year [in Germany], but I was having too much fun."[2] In 1994, Enochs signed with St. Pauli. The team placed him with its Fourth Division amateur farm team. The next season, Enochs and his team mates had moved to the Third Division for the 1995–96 season where he played in thirty-four games, scoring one goal. He performed well enough that he was offered a position on St. Pauli's first team, but he decided to move to Third Division club VfL Osnabrück in 1996.

Osnabrück

Enochs quickly established himself at Osnabrück, seeing time in thirty games in the 1996–97 season. He never played less than twenty-nine games a season as he was selected as team co-captain. In 2000, Osnabrück earned promotion to the Second Division, but was back in the Third Division the next season. The team won promotion again in 2003 and again in 2007, this time in the last game of the season.[3] Enochs broke the club record for games played on May 19, 2007. In June 2007, he signed a one-year extension to his contract.[4]

Enochs won the "goal of the month" award of German television network ARD in September 2004 for his strike against Bayern Munich in an early round of the German national cup competition.[5]

At the beginning of the 2007–08 season, his club opened a special section for children on the West stand of the stadium, that is named after Enochs.[6] He retired at the end of the 2007–08 season.

National team

Enochs earned his only cap with the U.S. national team in a June 7, 2001, scoreless tie with Ecuador. Enochs came on for Tony Sanneh in the sixty-second minute. He left the game in the ninety-first minute after suffering a gash to his forehead during a collision. Richie Williams came on for him.[7]

Personal

Enochs met his wife, Gunilla, a few months after he arrived in Germany through a blind date. That led to marriage and the birth of his daughter, Emily. In 2008, Enochs opened a bar in the historic part of Osnabrück.[8]

References

  1. "JOE ENOCHS COMES IN SECOND AS FANS VOTE FOR BEST PLAYER OF 2005". hornetsports.com. April 18, 2005. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  2. "Kismet paves Enochs' path". la84foundation.org. June 25, 2001. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  3. "Recap: Weekend German Action". yanks-abroad.com. June 3, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  4. "September 2004" (in German). sportschau.de. Retrieved May 25, 012. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. Pistorius, Harald (August 8, 2007). "Der jüngste Fanblock" (in German). 11Freunde. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  6. "Foreign-based players predominate American 0-0 draw with Ecuador". soccertimes.com. June 7, 2001. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  7. "Joe Enochs Sportsbar" (in German). joe-enochs-sportsbar.de. Retrieved May 5, 2012.

External links