Gerhard Strack (1 September 1955 – 21 May 2020) was a German

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played in the 1970s and 1980s.

Club career

Strack played his youth football ba locals clubs Glückauf Habbelrath-Grefrath (until 1966) und SpVg Frechen 20 (until 1973). He played one season by the youth of 1. FC Köln before he advanced to their first team. Strack played as a defender. Strack played eleven seasons in Köln. He played 339 games for them, of which 261 were in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. He scored 46 goals, of which 31 were in the Bundesliga. With Köln Strack won the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

three times and were German champions once. Strack joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

's first team in for their 1985–86 season under manager

Helmut Benthaus Helmut Benthaus (born 5 June 1935) is a German former football player and coach. He spent his best playing days at Westfalia Herne and his best coaching days at FC Basel. Early career Born in Herne, Benthaus played youth football and started hi ...

. Strack played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game at the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 7 August 1975 as Basel were defeated 0–1 by

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league s ...

. He scored his first goal for his club a few weeks later on 4 September in the away game as Basel played a 1–1 draw against

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

. During the two seasons with Basel, Strack played a total of 71 games scoring a total of 17 goals. 48 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, six in the Swiss Cup and 17 were friendly games. He scored nine goal in the domestic league, three in the cup and the other five were scored during the test games. After his time with Basel, Strack returned to Germany and played the 1987–88 season in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

with

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

International career

He earned ten caps and scored one goal for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

from 1982 to 1983, and was included in the West German team for the

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

, but did not play. The one goal he scored, against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in a European Championship qualifier in Saarbrücken on 20 November 1983, was vital: it gave West Germany a 2–1 win and ensured that they qualified for Euro 1984 ahead of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
FCB homepage: Gerd Strack mit nur 64 Jahren gestorben

External links

* * * 1955 births 2020 deaths People from Kerpen Sportspeople from Cologne (region) German footballers Germany international footballers Germany B international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 1984 players 1. FC Köln players FC Basel players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Bundesliga players Association football midfielders Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia {{germany-footy-midfielder-1950s-stub