Werner Fuchs (25 October 1948 – 11 May 1999) was a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player and coach.

Playing career

Fuchs was born in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfu ...

. A centre forward, he began his professional career in 1967 with a professional contract at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where is older brother Fritz also played professionally. Werner Fuchs only appeared once in the first team against

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding members of the Bunde ...

on 10 February 1968, and would remain his only appearance in the

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 footb ...

. Although he did feature in another Bundesliga team,

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betw ...

in 1972, he transferred to the regional league team

SC Preußen Münster SC Preußen Münster (English: Prussia Münster) is a German sports club based in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia which is mostly recognised for its football section. The football team currently plays in Regionalliga West which is the fourth tie ...

in that same season without making an appearance. He played on in Münster until his retirement in 1980.

Coaching career

His greatest achievements came as a football manager. As trainer of

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three-year turn in the Bundesliga in the ...

, he enjoyed huge popularity among the citizens of

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th ...

. He was trainer there from 1984 to 1987, and then again from 1996 until his death in 1999. He took Alemannia Aachen back into the

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 ...

, but was unable to continue his success as a few days before the final league game, which Aachen won to secure promotion, he collapsed during a walk in the woods with the team and died of a heart attack aged 50. He continues to be honoured by Aachen fans today, with signs in the stadium, for example.

Tributes

On the tenth anniversary of Werner Fuchs' death, Alemannia Aachen announced that the new amateur stadium belonging to the also New Tivoli stadium would be named the "Werner-Fuchs-Stadion", following suggestions from fans.

References

External links

Obituary

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Werner 1948 births 1999 deaths German footballers People from Kaiserslautern Association football forwards Footballers from Rhineland-Palatinate Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players SV Alsenborn players Hannover 96 players SC Preußen Münster players German football managers Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers Alemannia Aachen managers 1. FC Saarbrücken managers Hertha BSC managers Eintracht Braunschweig managers VfB Oldenburg managers Wuppertaler SV managers West German footballers West German football managers