Klaus-Dieter Sieloff (27 February 1942 – 13 December 2011) was a German

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 defender. He spent 11 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

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 ...

and

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

. He played in two World Cup Qualifying matches in 1966.

Early life

During his youth in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, Sieloff aimed to become a boxer, having stood in the ring 25 times by the age of 14. When his family moved to

Rottweil Rottweil (; Alemannic: ''Rautweil'') is a town in southwest Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Rottweil was a free imperial city for nearly 600 years. Located between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alps, Rottweil has nearly 25,000 in ...

near

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 ...

and after visiting football games of

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 ...

, Sieloff's interest however shifted from boxing to football. In October 1960, he played his first game for VfB Stuttgart in the

Oberliga Süd 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 ...

. There he soon became a fixture in the stopper position in Stuttgart's team.

Career

Physically strong yet technically adept, Sieloff soon got the attention of West Germany national team coach

Sepp Herberger Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 – 28 April 1977) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West German national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed ''The Mirac ...

, who first called him up for a 1964 friendly against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in Helsinki. During the next year, Sieloff became the standard sweeper of West Germany. As a player, Sieloff became known for surging forward from the sweeper position, often scoring with long range shots. Unfortunately for Sieloff, he lost his starting place in the West Germany national team during the 1965–66 season and thus did not feature in 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 ...

. During the next four years, the sweeper position was usually that of either

Willi Schulz Willi Schulz (born 4 October 1938) is a German former footballer who played as a defender for Schalke 04 and Hamburger SV. At International level, he made 66 appearances for the West Germany national team. Career Schulz was born in Wattensc ...

Karl-Heinz Schnellinger Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (born 31 March 1939) is a German former footballer who played as a defender. An athletic and hard-tackling player, with a strong physique, he was nicknamed the "Volkswagen" for his continuity of performance, both in qua ...

and thus Sieloff did not gain anymore caps up to 1970. After the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

, with Schulz retiring from international play and Schnellinger not featuring regularly in the German lineups due to playing abroad, Sieloff revived his international career, which was also fostered by his success at club level with

. In 1969, Sieloff had made the change from

to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Their 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 wi ...

intended to strengthen the defense of his young team, which was already very strong offensively, but lacked the defensive thoroughness to succeed in a long league campaign. For the 1969–70 season, Mönchengladbach added Sieloff as sweeper as well as

Ludwig Müller Johan Heinrich Ludwig Müller (23 June 1883 – 31 July 1945) was a German theologian, a Lutheran pastor, and leading member of the pro-Nazi "German Christians" (german: Deutsche Christen) faith movement. In 1933 he was appointed by the Nazi go ...

as the stopper. With the defense strengthened, Borussia Mönchengladbach won the 1969–70 and the 1970–71 Bundesliga seasons. With Sieloff being one of the celebrated stars of the team, he made his comeback for West Germany in April 1970 in a friendly against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. After the 1970 World Cup, with Schulz retired, Sieloff once again became the starting sweeper of West Germany. However, during 1971 it became apparent that

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 ...

, who previously played in midfield, was the strongest option at the sweeper position, which meant the end of Sieloff's international career after 14 appearances. For Borussia Mönchengladbach, Sieloff played until 1974 when he moved to

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a football in Germany, German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's 2. Bundesliga, second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three- ...

, where he remained until 1976. He ended his career in 1977, playing one season for

TSG Backnang The TSG Backnang Fussball is a German association football club from the city of Backnang, Baden-Württemberg. The club's most notable time was between 1965 and 1976, when it reached as far as Germany's second division for one season. The cl ...

. After his career, Sieloff became chief of the

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

company-facilitated sports activities group. He died in December 2011.

Honours

Borussia Mönchengladbach *

: 1969–70, 1970–71 *

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 ...

: 1972–73 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

finalist: 1972–73 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

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

; third place

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sieloff, Klaus-Dieter 1942 births 2011 deaths People from Tilsit Sportspeople from East Prussia German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers VfB Stuttgart players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Alemannia Aachen players 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players Bundesliga players Men's association football sweepers Men's association football defenders Sportspeople from Kaliningrad Oblast Footballers from Kiel People from Rottweil Footballers from Freiburg (region) West German men's footballers