Ernst Lehner (7 November 1912 – 10 January 1986) 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, rugb ...

. He was born in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

and died in

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the Aschaffenburg (district), district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative sea ...

International

He played for the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deuts ...

in the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

and the

1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, be ...

. In total, he made 65 appearances and scored 31 goals for the national team. Lehner was a member of the

Breslau Eleven The Breslau Eleven (german: Breslau-Elf) was the name given to the Germany national football team who defeated Denmark 8–0 at Hermann-Göring-Sportfeld in Breslau, Nazi Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) on 16 May 1937. Coached by Sepp Herberger, t ...

that beat Denmark 8–0 in Breslau in 1937 and went on to win 10 out of 11 games played during that year. His position was that of an outside right. He was also part of Germany's squad at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-s ...

Career

Ernst Lehner was one of the paciest and most skilled

outside right Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

s of the mid-/late-1930s. His specialty was corner kicks; gaining a reputation for often trying (and succeeding) to convert them directly. In a 1937 World Cup qualifier against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

, with Germany one goal behind at half-time, Germany collected 18 corner kicks in the second half, two of which Lehner converted directly and two other corners of his were headed into the Estonian goal by Jupp Gauchel (Germany won 4–1).Bitter, Jürgen. ''Deutschlands Fußball Nationalspieler'', Sportverlag, 1997, p. 281. Lehner was considered to have been one of the best outside rights of the 1934 World Cup. Others touted him as "the best non-professional player in Europe" (professionalism was not allowed in Germany in the 1930s). He was one of the players selected to represent Western Europe against Central Europe in 1937.

Praise

In his 1978 book "Fussball",

Helmut Schön Helmut Schön (15 September 1915 – 23 February 1996) was a German football player and manager. He is best remembered for his exceptional career as manager of the West German national team in four consecutive World Cup tournaments, including ...

, manager of the West German national team (1964–1978), characterised Lehner as follows: "His way of playing as an outside forward was the way I always wanted outside forwards to play: always ready to take up the ball, to stretch the game from outline to outline, a great dribbler and two-footed shooter."

References

External links

International career
1912 births 1986 deaths German footballers Germany international footballers Viktoria Aschaffenburg players 1934 FIFA World Cup players 1938 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of Germany Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Augsburg Association football forwards Footballers from Bavaria Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin players {{germany-footy-forward-1910s-stub