Alois Bernhard "Alec" Eisenträger (16 July 1927 – 10 August 2017) 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 lea ...

who played as an

inside forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

Career

Eisenträger was made a

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

aged 16 after being captured on a Dutch airfield and spent the rest of the war at a POW camp near Trowbridge, England. He started playing for

Trowbridge Town Trowbridge Town Football Club is a football club based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. They compete at Step 7 in the and play at Woodmarsh, on the southern edge of the town. History A Trowbridge Town team was originally formed in 1880 and ...

and then in 1949 moved to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

, scoring four goals against Newport County in September of that year. Thus, he was part of a professional British football team even before the famous

Bert Trautmann Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann (22 October 1923 – 19 July 2013) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bremen in 1923, he joined the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth in August 1933. Trautmann ...

moved to

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. He gained promotion with the Robins to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 1955. Until he left for

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of K ...

in 1958 he had appeared in 246 games for Bristol City, netting 57 times. In 1959, Eisenträger signed for Chelmsford City, making his debut in a 2–2 home draw against

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English Association football, football club based in Worcester, England, Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Southern Football League Premier Division Central, the seventh tier of English football. ...

on 22 August 1959, becoming the joint 250th player to represent the club.

Personal life

He married a woman from Wales in the early 1950s and had four children.Streppelhoff, R. (2009). Zwei Deutsche in England: Die Fußballkarrieren von Bernd Trautmann und Alois Eisenträger. ''SportZeiten. Sport in Geschichte, Kultur und Gesellschaft'', p. 44.

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading