Hans Jakob (16 June 1908 – 24 March 1994) was a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. He was born in Munich. He played over 1000 games as goalkeeper for

SSV Jahn Regensburg Sport- und Schwimmverein Jahn Regensburg e. V., commonly known as SSV Jahn Regensburg, Jahn Regensburg, SSV Jahn or simply Jahn is a German football club based in Regensburg, Bavaria. The club is based on a gymnastics club founded in 1886 a ...

, and also for

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

from 1942 to 1945. He earned 38 caps for the Germany national football team, and was part of two World Cups teams in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

and

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

, but played in only one game, the third-place playoff in 1934. Jakob was a member of the famous "Breslau Elf" that defeated Denmark 8–0 in 1937. In his 38 international games, Jakob kept eleven clean-sheets and while he was in goal, Germany were only defeated eight times. He was also part of Germany's squad at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. 'Jakl' Jakob was an all-round athlete who managed considerable results in track-and-field, winning the Bavarian hurdles race championships repeatedly, which led a

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

promoter to almost persuade him to pursue a decathlon career.Bitter, Jürgen (1997). ''Deutschlands Fussball Nationalspieler'', p. 216 Jakob became Germany’s number one goal keeper after the 1934 World Cup, replacing Willibald Kress, who had fallen out of favour with Reich coach Otto Nerz after a momentous blunder by Kress in the semi final had arguably cost Germany a place in the final. He died in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

. In his 1978 book ''Fussball'', Helmut Schön characterised Jakob as follows: "Thanks to his size and physical impact he was especially adept in catching high crosses and usually prevailed in turmoils inside the goal mouth."

References

1908 births 1994 deaths Footballers from Munich German footballers Germany international footballers 1934 FIFA World Cup players 1938 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of Germany Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Association football goalkeepers SSV Jahn Regensburg players FC Bayern Munich footballers {{Germany-footy-goalkeeper-stub