Horst-Dieter Höttges (10 September 1943 – 22 June 2023) was a German 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a sweeper or

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. Having started his career with hometown club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

, he spent most of his career with

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

. He made 420 Bundesliga appearances for Werder Bremen, a club record for outfield players, scoring 55 goals and helped the club win the Bundesliga title in the 1964–65 season, his first at Werder Bremen. At international level, he represented

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

from 1965 to 1974, amassing 66 caps and scoring 1 goal. He was part of the West Germany squads that won the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, 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 ...

and the

UEFA Euro 1972 The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972. Only four ...

Club career

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Born in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

, Höttges began playing football at local sides Blau-Weiß Dahl and Rheydter SV before joining

at the age of 17. After three years in the youth of Mönchengladbach he was taking part for them in their

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...

campaign of 1963–64 with Mönchengladbach manager

Hennes Weisweiler Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s. With eleven titles, ...

feeling Höttges' way of playing was not what he was looking for and the defender was forced to move on.

Werder Bremen

Ahead of the 1964–65 season Höttges signed with

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 ...

team

and enjoyed immediate success under

Willi Multhaup Willi Multhaup (19 July 1903 – 18 December 1982) was a German football manager and player who led Borussia Dortmund to victory in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1966. Career Multhaup won the 1964–65 Bundesliga with Werder Bremen. He won th ...

at the

Weser-Stadion Weserstadion () is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in Bremen, Germany. The Weserstadion is scenically situated on the north bank of the Weser River and is surrounded by lush green parks (the name 'Werder' is a regional German word for ...

, ending up winner of the Bundesliga title with Werder at the end of the same season. This outstanding success with Werder Bremen was a key for the full-back to be called up by

Helmut Schön Helmut Schön (15 September 1915 – 23 February 1996) was a German football player and manager. He is best remembered for his exceptional career as manager of the West Germany national team in four consecutive World Cup tournaments, including ...

for the West Germany national team already in 1965, a time when his toughness in tackling duels earned him his "Eisenfuß" (''iron foot'') nickname. Although Werder Bremen could not recopy the success of 1965, and became rather a relegation battler than a title chaser, Höttges remained loyal to them and served in the Bundesliga until 1978, scoring 55 goals in his 420 appearances for the North German side. As of July 2023, he holds the club record number of Bundesliga appearances for outfield players. His commitment to a half-a-day employment as sales representative for a manufacturer of sports goods forced him to hang up his boots that summer. Höttges put job before club, unwilling to give up his business, and got named "Ehrenspielführer" (''honorary captain'') due to his career efforts by Werder Bremen.

International career

On 13 March 1965, Horst-Dieter Höttges debuted for

in a friendly against Italy (1–1) at

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Volksparkstadion Volksparkstadion () is a football stadium in Hamburg, Germany, with a capacity of 57,000, which makes it the eighth largest stadium in Germany. It has served as the home ground of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV since 1953. The Volksparkstadion ...

. Hamburg's Volksparkstadion was also the place where he won the last of his sixty-six

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 ...

for West Germany during the memorable first round defeat at the hands of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in the

. The defeat of the West Germans in the politically and emotionally exaggerated match led coach Helmut Schön to significant changes in his line-up and limiting Höttges to a bench role was one of those. It resulted in the defender's subsequent retirement from international football after the

final West Germany won against their Dutch opponents. His first of altogether three World Cup participations Höttges enjoyed in 1966 as part of the runner-up squad of West Germany in England. He was further a member of the squad for the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

(third-place finish) and was a starter for his country in the

final against in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on 18 June. He and his teammates beat the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

that day to win Germany's first UEFA European Football Championship trophy.

Later years and death

Later on Höttges showed up for some time on amateur level for

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe, East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 ki ...

's SC Oberbecksen and TSV Achim, a club in a village near

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, where he settled down. He was partly coaching that club in an honorary capacity in the 1990s. Höttges died from complications of dementia on 22 June 2023, at the age of 79.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Werder Bremen *

: 1964–65 season West Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

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; ...

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

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 Solar time, ...

Individual *'' kicker''

Team of the Season: 1964-65,Alt URL
/ref> 1966–67,
/ref> 1969-70
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hottges, Horst-Dieter 1943 births 2023 deaths Footballers from Mönchengladbach German men's footballers West German men's footballers Men's association football sweepers Men's association football fullbacks Germany men's international footballers Germany men's B international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Borussia Mönchengladbach players SV Werder Bremen players 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup–winning players UEFA Euro 1972 players UEFA European Championship–winning players Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf