Matthias Liebers (born 22 November 1958 in Leipzig) is a former

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 ...

. Liebers joined to BSG Lokomotive Leipzig-Mitte in 1965 when he was seven years old and played for three years there. In 1968, he was brought to the performance centre of

1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig e.V. is a German football club based in the locality of Probstheida in the Südost borough of Leipzig, Saxony. The club may be more familiar to many of the country's football fans as the historic side VfB Lei ...

in Probstheida and began his youth career. In July 1974 he won the silver medal at Jugendturnier der V. DDR- Spartakiade in Rostock with Leipzig's junior youth squad. The Leipzig squad fought against

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

in the finale and lost with 2–5. Liebers was selected to the Spartakiade-Elf. In 1977 Liebers won the DDR-Nachwuchsoberliga.

beat FC Hansa Rostock with 3–1 in Bruno-Plache-Stadion on their third last matchday of the season 1976/77, secured their lead to

Berliner FC Dynamo Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e. V., commonly abbreviated to BFC Dynamo () or BFC (), alternatively sometimes called Dynamo Berlin, is a German football club based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg of Berli ...

who defeated Sachsenring Zwickau with 2–0 on their second last matchday. The result:

24 matches 37:11,

25 matches 33:17. Lok's game was mainly played by Liebers, Herrmann, Wolf and Arnold. Liebers debuted

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...

on the last matchday of the season 1976/77, 21 May 1977, substituted for

Henning Frenzel Henning Frenzel (born 3 May 1942 in Geithain) is a German former footballer. Frenzel was active in East Germany, and spent his entire career with Lokomotive Leipzig (in its various guises), where he totalled 420 appearances and 152 goals, resp ...

from 46 minutes of the match. He was promoted to the senior squad in 1978, where he played in the

at the top level of the East German football league. He played 327 matches for the club, scoring 38 goals. Liebers achieved the runner-up of DDR-Oberliga with Lok twice, 1986 and 1988. 1986:

34:18,

32:20. 1988: it's decided on goal difference:

58:30,

39:20. He was sent-off "due to unsportsmanlike behaviour" at 80 minutes of the match held between Lok and

on 22 March 1986, because of the premature running out of the wall at the free kick, which was hardly punished with a card then. The referee

Bernd Stumpf Bernd Stumpf (born 16 June 1940 in Jena) is a German football referee who served as a match official in the first division DDR-Oberliga of the former East Germany. He also worked as a FIFA referee and adjudicated 6 European Cup matches. Stumpf w ...

commented "I pointed out to him that next time he had to leave the field. He had drowned that out. But when the same thing was repeated twice just before the end, I had to show consistency." The match ended 1–1, with a penalty leveled at 95 minutes of the match which was later called " Shame penalty of Leipzig" Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig. On 6 June 1981, at the FDGB-Pokal 1981 finale, the Lok number 8 scored a dream goal at 62 minutes of the match and gained 2–1 lead for the team.

beat FC Vorwärts Frankfurt/Oder with 4–1, became the FDGB-Pokal 1981 winner for the third time after 1957 and 1976. Then Lok became the FDGB-Pokal winner twice in a row, 1986

5–1

FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

31 May 1986 and 1987

4–1 FC Hansa Rostock 13 June 1987, with Liebers as the conductor on the pitch. For the UEFA European Cup's, he played 42 matches and scored 5 goals in total. His highest achievement is the

1987 European Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1987 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between Ajax of Netherlands and 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig of East Germany. It was the final match of the 1986–87 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 27th European Cup Winners' ...

in Athens on 13 May 1987 against Ajax.

beat

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (de ...

with the legendary dramatic penalty shootout at the second leg of the semi-final in over-full-filled Leipzig's Zentralstadion on 22 April 1987, proceeded to the final for the first time in the club history. Ajax won the title with 1-0 by the

Marco Van Basten Marcel "Marco" van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and retired professional player, who played for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pl ...

's 20-minutes goal, Lok became the runner-up. On 26 October 1988, Lok met

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 ...

at the first leg of the first round of the

1988–89 UEFA Cup The 1988–89 UEFA Cup was won by Napoli over Stuttgart. It was the fourth season that English clubs were banned from European competitions. The English league clubs who otherwise would have qualified were Manchester United and Luton Town. Rom ...

in Zentralstadion filled with over 80000 spectators, he disputed over territory with Diego Maradona in the midfield. Liebers remained loyal to his club through the political change. The renaming in VfB Leipzig was secured at the general meeting of the

on 1 July 1991. The midfielder played 25 Bundesliga games with VfB in 1993–94, and 74

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 ...

games between 1991 and 1996. Between 1980 and 1988 Liebers played 59 times for East Germany, making him the 12th most-capped player. He debuted to the A-national-team on 8 October 1980, at the friendly match with Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in Stadion Evžena Rošického, soon was brought to the A-squad's journey to Argentina in January 1981. He competed for defending champion East Germany at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

, including the appearance for the final in Luzhniki Stadium in front of the 80000 spectators against Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 81 minutes of the match. 10-men down East Germany lost to same 10-men down Czechoslovakia with 0–1, received the silver medal. He was one of the leading players in the squad for the match against France which was the sixth qualifying match held on 11 September 1985 for 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 ...

. The Lok midfielder beat

Fabrice Poullain Fabrice Poullain (born 27 August 1962 in Alençon) is a French former professional football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use t ...

in every respect, risked dribbling against three opponents, sprinted away from them, and recognised the opponents' mistakes and used them quickly. His back pass to the Lok teammate

Ronald Kreer Ronald Kreer (born 10 November 1959) is a German former professional footballer. Biography Kreer began his career playing for the youth side of BSG Lokomotive Delitzsch, the local club of the town where he grew up, under the trainer Klaus Rudo ...

guided

's decisive 25-metre direct shot at 81 minutes of the match, the goal led the team to the 2–0 win over The UEFA Euro 1984 champion France. He spent the final years of his career with

FC Grün-Weiß Wolfen FC Grün-Weiß Wolfen was a Football in Germany, German association football club from the industrial city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen in southern Saxony-Anhalt. History After an Agfa factory had been founded in Wolfen in 1909, the city experienced a ...

(1996–97), FV Zeulenroda (1997–98) and finally with SV Blau-Weiß 90 Neustadt. In the 2004–05 season, he played two games for the reformed 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig in the third District League, scoring one goal. Liebers resigned his job as the head coach from SG Traktor Teichel in September 2020. In 2016, Liebers was selected as the centre midfield of the Lok's Legend-Elleven by online-voting from the large-number fans. Liebers was awarded the bronze Patriotic Order of Merit "Vaterländischer Verdienstorden" in August 1980.

References

External links

* *
Matthias Liebers
at FuPa.net *
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig Geschichte "Sphinx" der Oberliga, Sternstunden im Europacup (1966 - 1991)

Matthias Liebers
at imago-images.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Liebers, Matthias 1958 births Living people Footballers from Leipzig People from Bezirk Leipzig German men's footballers East German men's footballers East Germany men's international footballers 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in football DDR-Oberliga players Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Men's association football midfielders Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze