Jürgen Gelsdorf (born 19 January 1953) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who is currently youth teams coordinator at

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

Sporting career

As a player

For the 1972/73 season, 19-year-old junior soccer player Jürgen Gelsdorf joined

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

from

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

in the

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. ...

. The "Alm" had to be rebuilt after its forced relegation from the

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 ...

in 1971/72. The team relied on talents like Hans-Jürgen Wloka (

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 ...

) and Bernd Wehmeyer (Bielefeld's own amateurs) and therefore also signed the talented defensive player Gelsdorf. Bielefeld did very badly in the last two rounds of the Regionalliga West (11th place 72/73; 14th place 73/74), but for Gelsdorf it brought competitive practice in 56 appearances with one goal. Improved by this, he also coped with the increased demands in the newly created 2nd Division North in the 1974-76 rounds. Arminia even played for promotion in 1974/75, and in 1975/76 they were in a secure midfield position. Gelsdorf was in 64 appearances with three goals in the Arminia defense. With

Erhard Ahmann Erhard Ahmann (21 May 1941 – 14 December 2005) was a German football manager. In 1972, he was the assistant manager of the West Germany national football team The Germany national football team () represents Germany in men's internatio ...

(44-time amateur international), he had a good teacher as a coach and therefore also caught the eye of the scouts from

. He moved to Leverkusen for the 1976/77 round. After Arminia Bielefeld won the second division championship in 1977/78, he seemed to have chosen the wrong club, but twelve months later, after Bayer 04 won the 2. Bundesliga championship in the 1978/79 season, he had done everything right after all. In the championship round, he had played in all 38 games and also scored eight goals. In the 1976-79 rounds, he was one of the most reliable players for Leverkusen in a total of 107 games, scoring 17 goals in the 2nd Division North. Under the direction of promotion coach Willibert Kremer, the team moved up to the Bundesliga. Former FIFA coach and Bayern coach Dettmar Cramer then continued to hone the defensive qualities of the player, who had matured into a veteran in the meantime, from 1982 to 1985 before Gelsdorf then ended his active playing career with six appearances in the 1985/86 round under former DFB coach Erich Ribbeck.

As a coach

The transition from player to coach was seamless. From 1 July 1986, Gelsdorf was Bayer 04's full-time youth coach, and on 1 July 1988, he moved to the side of new head coach Rinus Michels as co-trainer. On 13 April 1989, he succeeded Michels and was in charge as head coach until 31 May 1991. Despite the additions of Jorginho ( Flamengo Rio), Martin Kree (

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

), Sven Demandt (

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

), Andreas Thom ( Berliner FC Dynamo), Franco Foda (

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

) and Ulf Kirsten (

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

), however, Bayer failed to make the leap to the top of the Bundesliga table. This was the main reason for his replacement on 31 May 1991. He then worked for various clubs in the 1. and 2. Bundesliga as well as in the Fußball-Regionalliga. From 3 October 1991 to 6 November 1992, he was under contract with

. With the Gladbach team, he reached the 1992 DFB Cup final against second-division team

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

, but lost 4-3 on penalties. He then moved to VfL Bochum for two years and from 1995 to 1997 he coached SC Fortuna Köln. At the start of the 1997/98 season, Gelsdorf signed on with KFC Uerdingen 05, where he was dismissed after a year and a half in September 1998. In November of the same year, he became coach of VfL Osnabrück - at the end of the 2002/03 season, he then left the club at his own request. His last stop as a professional coach was Rot-Weiss Essen from 2003 to 2005.

Private life

Jürgen Gelsdorf has two children. He lives in Odenthal.

Honours

As a coach

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

finalist: 1991–92

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gelsdorf, Jurgen 1953 births Living people German men's footballers German football managers MSV Duisburg players Arminia Bielefeld players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Bayer 04 Leverkusen managers Borussia Mönchengladbach managers VfL Bochum managers KFC Uerdingen 05 managers Fortuna Düsseldorf managers Bundesliga managers Rot-Weiss Essen managers FC Gütersloh managers VfL Osnabrück managers SC Fortuna Köln managers Men's association football defenders Footballers from Duisburg West German football managers West German men's footballers