Wolfgang Kleff (born 16 November 1946) is a German former professional

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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Club career

Kleff was born in

Schwerte Schwerte ( Westphalian: ''Schweierte'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Schwerte is situated in the Ruhr valley, at the south-east border of the Ruhr Area. South of Schwerte begins the mountain ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

. He joined

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional football club based in Mönchengladbach, Nort ...

from amateur outfit VfL Schwerte, where he was not a regular starter, in 1968 to become the leading goalkeeper of 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 ...

side until injuries forced him to lay-off periods in the late 1970s. From 1968 to 1976 he did not miss any domestic game of Borussia Mönchengladbach and was able to lift five Bundesliga titles ( 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77) one

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

( 1972–73) and one

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

( 1974–75) trophy with ''Die Fohlen''. He was also in the Borussia Mönchengladbach team which lost to

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

in the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

in and the

1976–77 European Cup The 1976–77 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won for the first time by Liverpool in the final against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Three-time defending champions Bayern Munich were knocked out by Dynamo Kyiv in the quarter- ...

. He was also part of the Mönchengladbach team which won the

1978–79 UEFA Cup The 1978–79 UEFA Cup was won by Borussia Mönchengladbach on aggregate over Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known ...

. After a season at

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...

, he returned to Mönchengladbach, Kleff played two more years in the Bundesliga for his old club, joining local rival

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

for two years in 1982. After a fall-out with Düsseldorf he joined

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen Rot-Weiß Oberhausen is a German association football club in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was formed as ''Oberhausener SV'' in December 1904 out of the merger of ''Emschertaler SV'' (1902) and the football enthusiasts of ''Oberh ...

of 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 ...

and was on the verge of becoming 40 years of age when he enjoyed one more year in the best German division with VfL Bochum. At the age of forty Kleff played the majority of games for promoted

FSV Salmrohr FSV Salmrohr is a German association football club in the village of Salmrohr, Rhineland-Palatinate. Founded in 1921, the small club has limited resources and has relied largely on local talent, but still managed two decades of play in the tie ...

in the 1986–87 2. Bundesliga. The season ended in swift relegation for Salmrohr and in Kleff's decision to hang up his gloves. However, for some time he continued to be a goalkeeper for amateurs such as SV Straelen. At the end of his illustrious career, Kleff had taken part in 433 matches in the Bundesliga and 56 games in the 2. Bundesliga.

International career

Kleff's international career with the West Germany national team was limited due to his competitor

Sepp Maier Sepp may refer to: *Sepp (given name) *Sepp (surname) *Science & Environmental Policy Project * Sepp (publisher) *Substantially equal periodic payments, US tax-law provision *Single Edge Processor Package *State Enterprise for Pesticide Production ...

occupying the role of West Germany's leading goalkeeper in that decade. Kleff won six caps for his country in between 1971 and 1974, the first of which took place in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

on 22 June 1971, a 7–1 defeat of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

in a post-season friendly. Kleff won the 1972 UEFA European Championship trophy in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

Post-playing life

Kleff's resemblance to German actor and comedian

Otto Waalkes Otto Gerhard Waalkes (born 22 July 1948) is a German comedian, actor, and musician. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films. His best known trademark are the 'Ottifanten' ('Ottiphants'), elephant-like c ...

earned him the nickname "Otto" and minor roles in films such as ''Otto – Der Film'' (''Otto – The Movie'') in 1985 and ''

Werner – Beinhart! Werner – Beinhart! (English title: ''Werner and the Wizard of Booze'') is the first German comedy-comic- film adaption based upon the successful German comic Werner by "Brösel". Production Shooting took place in Kiel, Flensburg and Ber ...

'' in 1990.

Honours

Borussia Mönchengladbach *

: 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77 *

: 1972–73 *

: 1974–75, 1978–79 Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kleff, Wolfgang 1946 births Living people People from Schwerte Sportspeople from Arnsberg (region) German footballers Association football goalkeepers Germany international footballers UEFA Cup winning players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Hertha BSC players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Rot-Weiß Oberhausen players VfL Bochum players FSV Salmrohr players SV 19 Straelen players KFC Uerdingen 05 players UEFA European Championship-winning players UEFA Euro 1972 players FIFA World Cup-winning players 1974 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia German male film actors