Karl-Heinz Thielen (born 2 April 1940) is a German former

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 as a striker or defender.

Club career

Thielen spent ten seasons 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 ...

with 1. FC Köln. He played as right winger for 1. FC Köln, which was a founding member of the 1. Bundesliga in 1963. In his first year, he became German champion with the club, making 25 appearances and scoring 15 goals. In total, Thielen, who had also played for Köln in the

Oberliga West Oberliga ( en, Premier league) may refer to: Association football * Oberliga (football), currently the fifth tier of the German football league system, formerly the first * DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of football in East Germany until 1990, re ...

from the 1959/60 season, made 221 Bundesliga appearances and scored 56 goals between 1963 and 1973. On 7 December 1963, he became the first of now 14 players to score five goals in a Bundesliga match in 1. FC Köln's 5–1 win against

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

. He scored a goal in two games for the

DFB DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

's U-23 team in the early 1960s. He later also played twice for the senior national team: in the home games against the ČSSR (1964) and against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

(1965), the West German team came off as losers in both cases.

International career

He also represented

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 ...

in two friendlies.

Official career

After finishing his active career, he became a soccer manager and played a role in the appointment of coach

Hennes Weisweiler Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s. With 11 titles, 8 with ...

, with whom 1. FC Köln won the German Cup in 1976/77. In 1977/78, he won the double (German Champion/DFB Cup Winner) with 1. FC Köln. He later served as treasurer, managing director and vice president. From 1989 to 1991, he was sports director at Fortuna Düsseldorf. At the end of 1992, he returned to the then relegation-threatened 1. FC Köln as manager until September 1993. In the same year, Köln became German indoor champions. Thielen was elected president of the "Deutsche Fußballspieler-Vermittler Vereinigung" (DFVV) at its founding meeting. He held this office until his retirement due to age on 2 April 2015. As of February 2010, Thielen was a player agent and represents, among others,

Liam Lawrence Liam Lawrence (born 14 December 1981) is a former professional footballer who played as a winger or central midfielder. Lawrence started his career at his local club Mansfield Town, after impressing at the Field Mill he signed for Sunderland ...

, Juan Carlos Menseguez and Facundo Hernán Quiroga.

Statistic

* 1. Bundesliga **221 appearances; 56 goals *

**74 appearances; 44 goals * Final round of the German championship ** 18 appearances; 15 goals *

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 ...

** 25 appearances; 6 goals * Westpokal ** 12 appearances; 8 goals *

UEFA Champions League 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 competi ...

;

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 tourn ...

;

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

** 45 appearances; 15 goals

Honours

West German 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 ...

: 1962, 1964 *

: 1968; runner-up: 1970, 1971 and 1973

References

External links

* * 1940 births Living people German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football forwards Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 1. FC Köln players West German men's footballers People from Neuwied (district) Footballers from Rhineland-Palatinate {{germany-footy-forward-1940s-stub