Jürgen Stars (born 24 June 1948) is a German former professional

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 le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

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 ...

and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

Career

Stars began his professional career in 1967 in his hometown, with 1. FC Phönix Lübeck in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

. Also playing for Phönix Lübeck that season was defender

Peter Nogly Peter Nogly (born 14 January 1947) is a former German football player and coach. Club career All his 320 West German top-flight matches he made in the Hamburger SV shirt. He played in the North American Soccer League for the Edmonton Dri ...

, who would later become Stars' teammate twice more at Hamburg and Tampa Bay.Homann, Ulrich. (1990). ''Höllenglut an Himmelfahrt . Die Geschichte der Aufstiegsrunden zur Fußballbundesliga 1963-1974''. Essen, Germany. Klartext-Verlag. After four seasons in Lübeck, he joined

SV Röchling Völklingen SV Röchling Völklingen is a German association football club that plays in Völklingen, part of the greater Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club draws its name from the Röchling family, owners of the Völklingen Ironworks steel factory, a former ...

who were initially playing in the

Regionalliga Südwest The Regionalliga Südwest ( en, Regional League Southwest) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. It is one of five leagues at this level, together wit ...

. Stars played there from 1971 to 1977, and under coach

Helmuth Johannsen Helmuth Johannsen (27 February 1920 – 3 November 1998) was a German professional football player and manager. Johannsen played for St. Pauli, a club which he also served as vice-president for a year from 1987 to 1988, but a war injury forced ...

the Völklingen squad twice finished as runner-up 1972 and 1973 in the Bundesliga promotion round. In 1974 his team gained promotion to the 2. Bundesliga South. Between 1974 and 1977, he played in 112 league games at Völklingen.Hoffmann, BF. (2003). ''Das große Lexikon der Bundesligatorhüter''. Berlin, Germany. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. By signing with

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in 1977, Stars finally made it to top-flight European football in the

. However, he saw limited action in three seasons, serving mostly as the back-up to

Rudi Kargus Rudolf Kargus (born 15 August 1952) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Born in Worms, West Germany, Kargus began playing football with boyhood club Wormatia Worms. Having joined the youth ranks of Hamb ...

, who was a fixture in goal at HSV. He only played two league games, but was a member of Hamburg's 1979 Bundesliga champion team. While in HSV he appeared in several

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 considere ...

matches and one

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 ...

match. He also played in the first leg of the

1977 European Super Cup The 1977 European Super Cup was an association football match played over two-legs between German team Hamburger SV and English team Liverpool. The first leg was played at the Volksparkstadion, Hamburg on 22 November 1977 and the second leg was p ...

, a 1–1 draw against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. In 1980 Stars moved to newly promoted second division side

VfR Bürstadt VfR Bürstadt is a Football in Germany, German association football club playing out of Bürstadt, Hesse. The team was founded 1 February 1910 as SC 1910 Bürstadt and took on the name VfR on 23 August 1919. Between 1973 and 1983 they played as ...

. There he appeared in 25 matches, helping VfR to 13th place in the table. However, since it was the final year that the 2. Bundesliga used the two-track system, Buerstadt was nevertheless relegated in the Amateur Oberliga Hessen for 1981–82.Weinrich, Matthias (2001). ''Zweitliga-Almanach''. Kassel, Germany. Agon-Sportverlag. Beginning in 1981 Stars also played four years in the NASL, initially for the

Calgary Boomers The Calgary Boomers were a Canadian soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) for the 1980–81 Indoor and 1981 outdoor seasons. The team was based in Calgary and played their home games at Stampede Corral during t ...

. He then briefly returned to Hamburg before joining

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

during their march to 1981–82 indoor finals. He played three

indoor Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

seasons and two outdoor campaigns in Tampa, before moving on to the

Tulsa Roughnecks Tulsa Roughnecks may refer to any of four distinct professional soccer teams: *Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984), the original top-flight team that played in the North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1984. *Tulsa Roughnecks (1993–2000), the team ...

for the 1984 outdoor season. As the starting goalie in Tampa, he won one indoor title in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

as well as a runner-up finish in 1981–82.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19820331&id=fYBXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tjsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6819,8303699 The NASL folded before the 1985, and Stars returned to West Germany. He finished his club career at

Altona 93 Altonaer FC von 1893, commonly known as Altona 93 and abbreviated to AFC, is a German association football club based in the Altona district of the city of Hamburg. The football team is a department of a larger sports club which also offers ha ...

and

VfL Pinneberg VfL Pinneberg is a German association football club from the town of Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein. Despite its location in Schleswig-Holstein the club plays in the football leagues of near-by Hamburg. The club's greatest success has been prom ...

. Over the course of his playing days, Notable teammates of Jürgen Stars were

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...

Ivan Buljan Ivan "Iko" Buljan (born 11 December 1949) is Croatian sport manager and a former Yugoslavian footballer, who played as a defender. He was a member of the Yugoslavia squad at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1976. Playing career Buljan wa ...

Arno Steffenhagen Arno Steffenhagen (born 24 September 1949) is a German retired professional footballer who played as a striker for clubs in Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada, making nearly 400 career league appearances and s ...

Franz Gerber Franz Gerber (born 27 November 1953) is a German former professional footballer. Playing career Gerber was born in Munich. He spent most of his teenage years playing in the youth ranks at Bayern Munich, until finally making the senior squad in 1 ...

, Hugo Perez, Tatu, and

Roy Wegerle Roy Wegerle (born March 19, 1964) is a former United States men's national soccer team, United States international association football, soccer player who appeared for the national team 41 times between 1992 and 1998. Born and raised in South Afr ...

. Because of some previous police training, he earned the nickname "Starski" -a reference to the popular television police drama ''

Starsky & Hutch ''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a ''Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired by th ...

''.

Retirement

After his retirement he served as an assistant coach or goalkeeper coach at several German clubs, including HSV in 1996–97 and SV Halstenbek-Rellingen in the Hamburg Oberliga in 2010. He has referred to his time with Tampa Bay in the NASL as "the best time of my life."

Honors

Röchling Völklingen *

runner-up: 1971–72, 1972–73 Hamburger SV *

: 1978–79 *

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 ...

runner up: 1979–80 *

runner-up: 1979–80 *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

runner-up:

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

Tampa Bay Rowdies * NASL indoor Champion:

* NASL indoor runner-up: 1981–82 * NASL indoor All-star: 1981–82

References

External links

NASL stats
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stars, Jurgen 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Lübeck Footballers from Schleswig-Holstein German men's footballers West German men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players 1. FC Phönix Lübeck players SV Röchling Völklingen players Hamburger SV players Calgary Boomers players Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984) players Altonaer FC von 1893 players West German expatriate men's footballers West German expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada West German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States