Karl Allgöwer (born 5 January 1957) 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 le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Growing up in

Geislingen an der Steige Geislingen an der Steige is surrounded by the heights of the Swabian Alb and embedded in 5 beautiful valleys. It is a town in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The name relates to its location "on the climb ...

, Allgöwer completed his youth years with SV Altenstadt and SC Geislingen before moving to

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

to score 59 goals for

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 ...

team

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. History In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südk ...

from 1977 to 1980 as

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. Local rival VfB Stuttgart paid Kickers 750,000 Deutsche Mark to team him up with their

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 ...

squad. Just a few matches for them, he got selected for the B-international team of Germany, impressing as a goalscoring

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

er. His immediate progress earned him a call-up from

Jupp Derwall Josef "Jupp" Derwall (10 March 1927 – 26 June 2007) was a German professional football manager and player. He was head coach of the West Germany national team between 1978 and 1984, winning the UEFA Euro 1980 and reaching the final of the 1982 ...

for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

they faced France in November 1980 and Allgöwer was having a bright debut, playing on the right in midfield and cementing his ambitions. Subsequent to him taking part regularly for Germany on their way to the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

, his participation in that tournament was expected. However, Allgöwer retired from playing for West Germany before the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Allgöwer's international retirement of 1982 lasted for three years. Three years in which he once won the Bundesliga title with Stuttgart (in 1984) and in which he massively expanded his importance for his club.

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (, ; born 11 September 1945) is a German former professional footballer and manager. In his playing career he was nicknamed ''Der Kaiser'' ("The Emperor") because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the fi ...

, successor of

at the helm of the German team in 1984, attempted to lure the strong shooting player out of that retirement, but Beckenbauer had to wait until October 1985 to see Allgöwer return for the World Cup qualifier against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(0–1), which ironically took place at

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

Neckarstadion Mercedes-Benz Arena () is a stadium located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and home to German Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. Before 1993 it was called Neckarstadion (), named after the nearby river Neckar and between 1993 and July ...

. He kept on for West Germany then, declaring his final international retirement after staying unused in the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

runner-up campaign of Germany. He collected 10 caps. On club level he remained a key player for his sole team, switching to a sweeper role later on. Karl's brother Ralf also played a few matches for Stuttgart in these years, but never gaining the status Karl had for his coaches and the Stuttgart supporters. In 1989 the powerful free-kick specialist was part of the Stuttgart XI with

Guido Buchwald Guido Ulrich Buchwald (born 24 January 1961) is a German former professional football player. Throughout his career he played as a defender. He is currently director of football of Stuttgarter Kickers. The best game of Buchwald's career was th ...

and

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (, born 30 July 1964) is a German professional football manager and former player. Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich. He ...

that got defeated by

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

SSC Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Camp ...

in the

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. It ...

final. After 338 Bundesliga matches Allgöwer said farewell to the German top division in the summer of 1991. __NOTOC__

Honours

International

;West Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: Runner-up

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Club

;VfB Stuttgart *

: Runner-up 1988–89 *

: 1983–84 *

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 ...

: Runner-up 1985–86

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allgower, Karl 1957 births Living people People from Göppingen (district) Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region) German footballers Germany international footballers West German footballers Germany B international footballers Stuttgarter Kickers players VfB Stuttgart players 1986 FIFA World Cup players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Association football midfielders Footballers from Baden-Württemberg Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg