Thomas Hörster (born 27 November 1956) is a German retired

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 defender.

Club career

Born in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

, Hörster spent his first three seasons as a professional with local Schwarz-Weiß Essen, in the second division. For 1977–78 he signed with another club in the league,

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. After winning promotion to the Bundesliga in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, Hörster was an essential defensive unit for Bayer in the following 13 seasons, his lowest input being 24 games in the 1981–82 campaign. In 1987–88 he appeared in a total of 35 official matches, including nine in the team's victorious run in the UEFA Cup – one goal against FK Austria Wien in a 5–1 home win (also the aggregate score)– even though he did not appear in any of the two matches of

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

against

RCD Español Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

. Hörster retired in June 1991 at the age of 34, with top flight totals of 332 games and 16 goals. He remained closely associated with Leverkusen in the following years, working as manager (youth teams, reserves, caretaker) and

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

. On 16 February 2003, he was appointed main squad manager, leaving his position on 12 May.

International career

Hörster won four caps for West Germany, his debut coming on 24 September 1986 in a 2–0

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

win in Denmark. All of his three other appearances were also in exhibition games. Hörster was part of the West Germany Olympic team at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in Seoul, helping the side win the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

Honours

Player

Bayer Leverkusen *

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 ...

Nord: 1978–79 * UEFA Cup: 1987–88

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horster, Thomas 1956 births Living people Footballers from Essen German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players UEFA Europa League winning players Germany men's international footballers Olympic footballers for West Germany West German men's footballers Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for West Germany Olympic medalists in football German football managers Bundesliga managers Bayer 04 Leverkusen managers Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics