“PR or not – I didn’t want to be a laughingstock,” Manfred Burgsmüller – fifth-best goalscorer in history – once told the news magazine “Der Spiegel” when he talked about his change of sport after his football career. The Bundesliga legend had previously won the World Bowl twice as a kicker with the Düsseldorf American football team Rhein Fire between 1996 and 2002, once in the NFL offshoot World League and once in its successor competition NFL Europe. And it wasn’t just Burgsmüller, the oldest football player in the world at the age of 52 when he changed careers, who literally kicked the round leather against the egg-shaped one after his career.
All information about the NFL games in Frankfurt
In football, Burgsmüller scored 213 goals in Germany’s top league for Borussia Dortmund, SV Werder Bremen, Rot-Weiss Essen and 1. FC Nürnberg and once celebrated the German championship with Werder. In American football, BVB’s former record scorer scored 300 points through field goals and extra points as a result of a touchdown. “I knew that I couldn’t afford any flops when there were spectators in the stadium.”
Anderbrügge “could have made it to the NFL”
When Burgmüller ended his football career, Rhein Fire wanted to continue on the path they had chosen and signed the former Bundesliga player from FC Schalke 04 and Dortmund Ingo Anderbrügge as his successor. After two seasons, Düsseldorf and Anderbrügge went their separate ways because of the distance between the North Rhine-Westphalian capital and the 1997 UEFA Cup winner’s football school in Marl.
“He’s a very talented kicker who certainly could have made it to the NFL if he were a few years younger,” Rhein Fire general manager Sammy Schmale said at the time.
Ingo Anderbrügge (l.) with Manfred Burgsmüller in Rhine Fire Training – IMAGO / Wienold
Kruses Underdog Story
From 1999 to 2003, Axel Kruse also fought for the World Bowl, which the previous Bundesliga player from Hertha BSC, Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart also won twice with Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe. And it wasn’t just Kruse’s story from a soccer player to one of the best kickers in European American football that seemed like a real sensation at the time.
As the bottom of the 1999 and 2000 seasons, the Thunder unexpectedly made it into the World Bowl against the Barcelona Dragons in the Amsterdam Arena the following year. During the regular season, Berlin lost to the Catalans twice, 14:21 and 35:55. “Especially because of these defeats, some of Barcelona’s players might think that they have already won. Well, that’s where the outsider’s chance lies,” Kruse explained at the time – and should use this opportunity with the capital city team.
Axel Kruse at Berlin Thunder – IMAGO / Camera 4
Cracks in the GFL2
Only recently has Marcel Risse – active in the Bundesliga until 2021 for 1. FC Köln, 1. FSV Mainz 05, 1. FC Nürnberg and Bayer 04 Leverkusen and then in the 3rd league – been kicking against the egg. He plays with the Langenfeld Longhorns in the GFL2, the second German football league.
How did this come about? “I have been interested in this sport for many years,” Risse told the online sports channel sportdeutschland.tv. “And if I have a club like this on my doorstep, I thought to myself: Why shouldn’t I ask if I can train with them?”
An Austrian wins the Super Bowl
Nobody from the Bundesliga has yet made it to the NFL. Proof that it is even possible to make the leap from professional football to the prestigious US football league was achieved by the Austrian Toni Fritsch in the 1970s and 1980s – who, however, made his move from Rapid Vienna to American football at the age of 26 had: With the Dallas Cowboys during the Super Bowl triumph in 1971 he was not granted any playing minutes due to an injury, but in 1976 he made it to the spectacular final again and was the kicker with the highest hit rate in the NFL in 1977, 1979 and 1980 advanced.
Who knows what the future will bring? A Bundesliga player in the NFL would definitely make headlines. But then it could also mean: PR or not. Nobody wants to be a laughingstock, Burgsmüller and Co. were the complete opposite.
2023-10-30 16:19:24
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