Matthias Herget (born 14 November 1955) 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

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 237 games and 26 goals over the course of eight seasons, mainly in representation of

Bayer Uerdingen KFC Uerdingen 05 is a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side enjoyed its greatest successes in the 1980s but now plays in the fifth-level Oberliga. History The ...

, of which he was also a longtime

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. Herget gained 39 caps 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 ...

, representing the nation in

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

World Cup and

European Championship.

Club career

Born in Annaberg-Buchholz,

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, Herget started playing professionally with

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, appearing in two

seasons. In the 1978 summer, he moved to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

and joined Rot-Weiss Essen, appearing almost exclusively 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 ...

during his spell, and scoring 36 league goals in his last three seasons combined. Herget continued in the second level in the 1982–83 season, netting five goals in 35 games for Bayer 05 Uerdingen as the team promoted to the top flight after finishing third. He continued to be an undisputed starter in the following years, also managing to score in every season during his seven-year stint, which included a best-ever third position for the club in 1985–86; additionally, he played the full 90 minutes in the final of the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

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 the first and only trophy of his career after defeating

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

2–1. After having helped the

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

outfit once again retain its division status in 1988–89, 33-year-old Herget signed with

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

, retiring at the end of the season. After becoming a manager, he was in charge of several lowly clubs, including SSV Buer, Eisbachtaler Sportfreunde 1919 e. V. and 1. FC Bocholt.

International career

Herget made his debut for

on 26 October 1983, replacing Hans-Peter Briegel for the last ten minutes of a 5–1 home win against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

for the

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

qualifiers. He was part of the squad that finished second at 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 ...

in Mexico, but only appeared once, in the 2–0 group stage loss against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Estadio Corregidora Estadio Corregidora is a stadium in Querétaro City, Mexico. Named for Mexican War of Independence heroine Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez ("La Corregidora"), it has a capacity of 33,162 and is located on the outskirts of the city of Querétaro, north ...

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...

. Still under manager

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 ...

, Herget became first-choice, also being selected for

Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned the Nethe ...

, which was played on home soil. He paired

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

's Jürgen Kohler during the tournament as the national team reached the semifinals, and eventually gained a total of 39 caps.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list West Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Herget goal.''

Honours

Bayer Uerdingen : DFB-Pokal: 1984–85

References

External links

* *
Matthias Herget
at kicker.de * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herget, Matthias 1955 births Living people People from Annaberg-Buchholz German footballers Association football defenders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players VfL Bochum players Rot-Weiss Essen players KFC Uerdingen 05 players FC Schalke 04 players Germany international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players German football managers 1. FC Bocholt managers Footballers from Saxony West German footballers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia