Herbert "Ertl" Erhard (6 July 1930 – 3 July 2010), also known as Herbert Erhardt, 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, rugby ...

who played as a defender.

Club career

Erhard played for SpVgg Fürth and Bayern Munich. He was known for his hard tackling, doggedness and captain-like performances. The German Football Association lists Erhardt in the top 20 best German defenders of all time, and Bayern Munich included him in their best 16 in a team made up in the 1980s of famous past players. Erhard started out as a full back before being used as a half back by the mid-1950s. He then settled in the center half position by the end of the 1950s.

International career

Erhard earned 50

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the West Germany national team, and was a member of the German team which won the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

. He also participated in two other World Cups, in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

and

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

. Although Erhard did not play in the 1954 World Cup, coach

Sepp Herberger Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 – 28 April 1977) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West German national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed '' The Mir ...

toyed with the idea of changing his defense by adding Erhardt as the left back in the final game against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

instead of

Werner Kohlmeyer Werner Kohlmeyer (19 April 1924 – 26 March 1974) was a German footballer who played as a full back. He was part of the West German team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. In total he earned 22 caps for West Germany. He also played for 1. FC ...

, but eventually decided to keep the same line-up as in the semifinal against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

.Bitter, Jürgen. ''Deutschlands Fußball Nationalspieler'', Sportverlag, 1997, p. 107. Herberger proved his tactical acumen by moving Erhardt to central defense in early 1958. In this new stopper role, Erhard proved to be a stand-out for Germany during the 1958 FIFA World Cup and remained Germany's standard stopper until his retirement from international play in September 1962. Between 1959 and 1962, Erhard had captained West Germany 16 times.

References

External links

* * * * 1930 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Fürth German footballers Footballers from Bavaria Germany international footballers Association football defenders 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players FC Bayern Munich footballers SpVgg Greuther Fürth players German football managers FC Augsburg managers BC Augsburg managers {{germany-footy-defender-1930s-stub