Rolf Rüssmann (13 October 1950 – 2 October 2009) was a German international

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 defender for

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, ...

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

Player bio

In 1969,

paid FC Schwelm 06 38,000 Deutsche Mark to sign promising stopper Rüssmann, who did not enjoy the best of starts at the

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

-based outfit under

Rudi Gutendorf Rudolf Gutendorf (30 August 1926 – 13 September 2019) was a German football manager, renowned for managing the highest number of national teams – a total of 18 teams plus Iran's Olympic team in 1988 and the China Olympic team in 1992 ...

, but then gained more regular appearances for the club and seemed destined for a successful career. A

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

winner with

in 1972, his career was brought to a halt after evidence proved Rüssmann was one of those players of FC Schalke 04 that got bribed by

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 ...

for fixing the result of a head-to-head Bundesliga match of both clubs on 17 April 1971, for the benefit of Bielefeld. Initially Rüssmann (among other Schalke players) had controverted those claims. Rüssmann was one of the crop of players that committed perjury in the affair and got, as a consequence, punished with a fine by a court in 1975. In 1973 (and shortly in the course of the 1976–77 season), Rüssmann was banned temporarily from club action by the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

, but given the allowance for appearances in foreign leagues. So he left

in 1973 to see out his Bundesliga ban with Belgian outfit

(11 matches, 0 goals). Returning to Schalke afterwards, Rüssmann stayed on with the club until December 1980. Cash-strapped, Schalke had to sell him to arch-rival side

at that time with Rüssmann staying on at

Westfalenstadion Westfalenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is the home stadium of Borussia Dortmund. Officially called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons and BVB Stadion Dortmund in UEFA competitions, ...

until he retired in 1985 after 48 goals in 453

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 ...

matches. Before the 2015/15 season only 23 players had amassed more appearances in the Bundesliga than Rüssmann. A respected youth international for

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 ...

, Rüssmann was already on the verge of a

debut in 1971, but then saw his hopes ruined by his role in the match fixing '' Bundesligaskandal''. Six years after the scandal, he was enjoying a bright season with his club and the

had eased their restrictions concerning players involved in the scandal (see ''

Klaus Fischer Klaus Fischer (born 27 December 1949) is a German former professional footballer and coach. He was a key player on the West Germany national team that lost the 1982 World Cup final to Italy. As a forward, he was noted for his bicycle kicks, ...

'') in the meantime, Rüssmann was re-called 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 ...

to debut for the West Germans in a friendly win against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in April 1977. Steady performances lead to more call-ups and regular caps resulted in Rüssmann earning a spot in the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

squad of

. He came to action in all six matches, but after their (early) elimination he did feature just one more time for his nation in the rest of his career. In total, Rüssmann won 20 caps, scoring one goal (winning goal versus

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 ...

Honours

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 ...

: 1971–72 *

: runner-up 1971–72, 1976–77

General manager in the Bundesliga

In 1987, Rüssmann returned to

as an off-pitch authority and was general-manager of the club from 25 February to 10 August 1987. With

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 ...

's veteran general-manager Helmut Grashoff looking for a successor, Rüssmann started to work as assistant to Grashoff at Mönchengladbach in April 1990 and got Grashoff's replacement later on. On 8 July 1992, Rüssmann was sacked by Mönchengladbach, but re-appointed by the club in September 1992 due to a change of view inside the Mönchengladbach presidium. On 10 November 1998, Rüssmann was finally out of the door at Mönchengladbach following a complete change of environment caused by an ongoing disastrous run of results in the

since 1996. From 1 February 2001, Rüssmann was general-manager of Bundesliga side

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, getting the sack by ''Die Schwaben'' in December 2002.

Death

He died on 2 October 2009 from

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

less than two weeks before he would have turned 59.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russmann, Rolf 1950 births 2009 deaths Deaths from prostate cancer in Germany German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers FC Schalke 04 players Club Brugge KV players Borussia Dortmund players 1978 FIFA World Cup players People from Schwelm Footballers from Arnsberg (region) Belgian Pro League players Bundesliga players Men's association football defenders West German men's footballers West German expatriate men's footballers West German expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium