Lothar Spranger is a German former

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 le ...

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 o ...

Career

Spranger played in the

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...

in the 1950s with

1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig e.V. is a German football club based in the locality of Probstheida in the Südost borough of Leipzig, Saxony. The club may be more familiar to many of the country's football fans as the historic side VfB Lei ...

for five seasons. In 1957, he received a short-term

travel visa A visa (from the Latin ''charta visa'', meaning "paper that has been seen") is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on t ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and as result

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

. In 1960, he played abroad in Switzerland with

FC Kreuzlingen FC Kreuzlingen is a Swiss football club from the town of Kreuzlingen in Canton Thurgau, the German-speaking region of Switzerland. The team currently plays in 2. Liga Interregional 2. Liga Interregional (2nd League Interregional in english) ...

and played with the organization for two seasons. In 1961, he continued his career this time in North America where he played in Canada's

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

with Toronto Olympia for the 1962 season. He would re-sign with Toronto for the 1963 season. For the remainder of the 1963 season, he played in the

Greater Los Angeles Soccer League The Los Angeles Soccer League was a regional association football, soccer league consisting of clubs based in and around Los Angeles. Established as the California Football Association, the league was founded in 1902 and it is one of the oldest s ...

with Germania. He furthered his soccer career in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

by playing with Germania for an additional two seasons. In 1966, he played in the Continental Soccer League with Montebello. The following season he signed with

Los Angeles Toros LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

of the National Professional Soccer League. He originally was signed as a backup keeper for

Blagoje Vidinić 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; ...

but became the starting goalkeeper after Vidinic sustained an injury for the majority of the season. He would make 14 appearances for Los Angeles. In 1968, he returned to the Greater Los Angeles League to play with Montebello Armenians and was named to the All-Star team. Spranger featured in the

1969 National Challenge Cup The 1969 National Challenge Cup was the 56th edition of the United States Soccer Football Association's annual open soccer championship. The Greek American AA team defeated the Montebello Armenians in the final game. As a result, Greek American ...

final but Montebello was defeated by reigning champions

Greek American AA NY Greek American Atlas Astoria, commonly known as New York Greek American, is an American soccer team from New York City that currently plays in the Eastern Premier Soccer League and in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League. The club was formed in 194 ...

. He was named once more to the All-Star team for the 1970 season. He played his final season in the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League with Montebello in 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spranger, Lothar Year of birth missing (living people) Men's association football goalkeepers German men's footballers East German men's footballers East German defecting sportspeople 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig players FC Kreuzlingen players Los Angeles Toros players DDR-Oberliga players Canadian National Soccer League players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players Footballers from Leipzig East German emigrants to West Germany West German men's footballers West German expatriate men's footballers People from Bezirk Leipzig West German expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland West German expatriate sportspeople in the United States West German expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada