Hans Schäfer (19 October 1927 – 7 November 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

outside left In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

Career

Schäfer was born in Zollstock,

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. He played for 1. FC Köln between 1948 and 1965, and for the West Germany national team, earning 39

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 Java ...

and scoring 15 goals. He played in three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

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 thir ...

, and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

, earning a winner's medal in 1954 and scoring a total of seven goals from all of West Germany's total 15 matches played in the three editions. Between 1957 and 1962, Schäfer captained Germany 16 times. Schäfer's position was that of an

. In the latter stages of his career, he became an

inside left In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

forward. He debuted for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on 9 November 1952, in the international friendly against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, scoring a goal. During the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June ...

, Schäfer scored four goals. Schäfer won the German football championship with 1. FC Köln in 1962 and 1964 and was voted German Footballer of the Year in 1963, at the age of 35. He played in the first two seasons of the newly founded

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

39 matches (20 goals) before retiring from professional football. Schäfer died on 7 November 2017 at age 90.

References

External links

* !colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;", World Cup-winners status , - , style="width:25%; text-align:center;", Preceded by

Alcides Ghiggia Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia Pereyra (; 22 December 1926 – 16 July 2015) was a Uruguayan football player, who played as a right winger. He achieved lasting fame for his decisive role in the final match of the 1950 World Cup, and at the time of ...

, style="width:50%; text-align:center;", Oldest Living Player
16 July 2015 – 7 November 2017 , style="width:25; text-align:center;", Succeeded by
Mário Zagallo
1927 births 2017 deaths Footballers from Cologne German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Sportspeople from the Rhine Province 1. FC Köln players Bundesliga players 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup–winning players Men's association football forwards West German men's footballers {{germany-footy-forward-1920s-stub