Willem Gerard "Willi" Lippens (born 10 November 1945) is a former football player. He is nicknamed "Ente" (German for "duck") due to his waddling. Born in Germany, he represented the Netherlands national team. Born near the German-Dutch border to a Dutch father and a German mother, Lippens spent most of his career playing for German clubs. He played for

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

from 1965 to 76 and in 1980–81. Between 1976 and 1979 he played for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

before leaving to play one season for the

Dallas Tornado The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. ...

in the NASL (North American Soccer League). Lippens played in 242

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 ...

matches, scoring 92 goals, making him the player who appeared most often for ''Rot-Weiss'' at that level of play, as well as their top scorer. Lippens also played an international match for the Netherlands, making him one of eight Dutch football players to have been selected for the Netherlands national team while never having played in the Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

. The other capped players are

Jordi Cruyff Johan Jordi Cruijff (anglicised to Cruyff; born 9 February 1974) is a Association football, football coach and former player. He is the son of former player and manager Johan Cruyff. As a footballer, Cruyff played from 1992 through to 2010, in ...

Jerrel Hasselbaink Jerrel Floyd "Jimmy" Hasselbaink ( ; born 27 March 1972) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of League One club Burton Albion. Born in Suriname, he and his family would later move to th ...

, Rob Reekers,

Wim Hofkens Wim Hofkens (born 27 March 1958) is a former football player who played five games for the Dutch national side. Hofkens is one of only eight Dutch football players to be selected for the national team while never having played in the Dutch Ere ...

Nathan Aké Nathan Benjamin Aké (born 18 February 1995) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Manchester City and the Netherlands national team. Although he predominantly plays as a centre-back, he has also ...

, and

Timothy Fosu-Mensah Evans Timothy Fosu Fosu-Mensah (born 2 January 1998) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder, centre-back or full-back for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Netherlands national team. He formerly played for ...

. Lippens, who spoke only very basic

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, is the only native German-speaker ever to have played for the Dutch national team. Lippens received several invitations to join the German national selection as well, but always declined as his Dutch father had forbidden him to play for Germany. Lippens has said that he would have liked to have played for Germany, but that his respect for his father, and the experiences his family lived through during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

outweighed this. Lippens was known for his imaginative footwork, which earned him the nickname ''Ente'' (Duck), and was a fan favorite because of his irreverent good humour. One particular anecdote about Lippens has become a cliché in German football culture: A referee once gave Lippens a yellow card, saying: ''Ich verwarne Ihnen!'' ("I'm warning you!"), in defective German grammar, using a

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...

pronoun instead of

accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...

. Lippens replied: ''Herr Schiedsrichter, ich danke Sie!'' ("Sir, I thank You!"), sarcastically using an accusative pronoun instead of a correct dative this time. Lippens was immediately sent off by the referee.

Career statistics

*107 goals in 155 regional league games

(1965–1966, 1967–1969, 1971–1973) *79 goals in 172 Bundesliga games for

(1966–1967, 1969–1971, 1973–1976) *23 goals in 67 2. Bundesliga-Nord games for

(1979–1981) *13 goals in 70 Bundesliga games for

(1976–1979)

External links

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lippens, Willi 1945 births Living people Association football midfielders Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers German people of Dutch descent Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Rot-Weiss Essen players Borussia Dortmund players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Dallas Tornado players Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United States sportspeople in the United States