Norbert Nachtweih (born 4 June 1957) 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

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 ...

. He played in 325

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 ...

games over the course of 13 seasons (46 goals), playing for

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

and

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 pla ...

and winning eight major titles combined, including four national championships with the latter.

Career

Born in

Sangerhausen Sangerhausen () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz. It is situated southeast of the Harz, approx. east of Nordhausen, and west of Halle (Saale). About 26,000 people live in Sangerhausen (2 ...

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 ...

, Nachtweih moved to

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 1976, signing with

, for which he appeared as a

over the course of five

seasons, scoring 25 goals in his last three years combined and winning the

1979–80 UEFA Cup The 1979–80 UEFA Cup was the ninth season of the UEFA Cup, a football competition organised by UEFA for clubs representing its member associations. The competitions was won by Eintracht Frankfurt, who beat Borussia Mönchengladbach on the awa ...

(11 appearances, one goal) against fellow league side

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 ...

. In the 1982 summer, Nachtweih joined

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 ...

, contributing with 85 games and ten goals as the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

ns won three consecutive national championships from 1985–87 (of the four he conquered with the team during his spell), and also being regularly played as a defender. In 1989, the 32-year-old moved to France and signed for

AS Cannes Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 3, ...

, partnering a young

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

in two

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

seasons, and helping the club qualify to the

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 ...

in his first. After a brief spell with Eintracht, Nachtweih signed with

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 ...

SV Waldhof Mannheim SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...

in December 1991. He retired from professional football after five seasons at the age of 39, but still competed a few years at the amateur level. After his active career, Nachtweih managed SV Bernbach and

FK Pirmasens FK Pirmasens is a German association football club in Pirmasens, Rhineland-Palatinate. The team was formed as the football section of the gymnastics and sports club TV Pirminia Pirmasens in 1903 and became independent in 1914. They took on thei ...

(first as a youth coach). Subsequently, he returned to Eintracht Frankfurt, working in the club's football academy.

Defection

In October 1976, following an under-21 international game, Nachtweih fled to West Germany via

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 ...

alongside

Jürgen Pahl Jürgen Pahl (born 17 March 1956 in Teuchern, East Germany) is a German former football goalkeeper. He fled together with Norbert Nachtweih from a match of the East Germany under-21 team to West Germany and was subsequently banned for a year. ...

, being suspended one year by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

. Even though he was one of the best German footballers in the 1980s, FIFA formalities forbade a career in the West German national team, as he had previously appeared with

Honours

Eintracht Frankfurt *

: 1979–80 *

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 ...

: 1980–81 Bayern Munich *

: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89 *

: 1983–84, 1985–86; runner-up 1984–85 *

European Cup 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 competit ...

: runner-up 1986–87 * DFL-Supercup:

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

References

External links

*
FootballStats profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nachtweih, Norbert 1957 births Living people People from Sangerhausen People from Bezirk Halle German footballers East German footballers Footballers from Saxony-Anhalt Association football defenders Association football midfielders East Germany under-21 international footballers DDR-Oberliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players Hallescher FC players Eintracht Frankfurt players FC Bayern Munich footballers SV Waldhof Mannheim players AS Cannes players German football managers Eintracht Frankfurt non-playing staff East German defectors East German emigrants to West Germany UEFA Cup winning players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France

Career

Defection

Honours

See also

References

External links