Jürgen Kurbjuhn (26 July 1940 – 15 March 2014) 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. Kurbjuhn had excelled as a youth-international 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 ...

during his time with amateur club '' Buxtehuder SV'' and joined

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

's biggest, Hamburger SV, in 1960 when the club had just been crowned German football champion. In 1961 he was part of the Hamburg side reaching the semi-final of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

against

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and part of the 1963

German Cup 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 ...

winning side of the club. He retired, because of injury, after ten goals in 242

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 ...

matches in 1972, mostly as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. His

career lasted five matches, between April 1962 and May 1966. He was unused by Sepp Herberger at the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place bet ...

. He played his last international on 4 May 1966, when the West Germans beat

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

4–0 in a friendly. He was not selected for Helmut Schön's squad for the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

. From 1988 he owned an insurance company in Buxtehude.

Honours

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

finalist: 1967–68 * DFB-Pokal winner: 1963–63; finalist 1966–67

References

1940 births 2014 deaths People from Tilsit Sportspeople from East Prussia German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Hamburger SV players Bundesliga players 1962 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football defenders West German men's footballers People from Buxtehude Footballers from Lower Saxony {{germany-footy-defender-1940s-stub