28. August 2024
A talent scout after his Bundesliga career
RWE legend Gerd Wörmer (first row left) in the team photo from 1977/78. (Photos: Schrepper Archive)
He helped shape Rot-Weiss Essen’s most successful years in the Bundesliga as a stopper and trained a number of talents as a youth coach after his active career. Gerd Wörmer, born in Stadtlohn in 1944, celebrates his 80th birthday on August 27.
Born in western Münsterland in the district of Borken, he went to Berlin as a non-professional from the SuS Stadtlohn in 1966 – in fact until he was called up for military service – and played in the second class Berlin Regionalliga for Tennis Borussia Berlin until 1971. Gerd Wörmer won second place in Berlin twice with the “Veilchen” (1968 and 1970) and took part in two promotion rounds to the Bundesliga.
Birthday boy Gerd Wörmer.
Bundesliga years
For the 1971/72 season he moved to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the Bundesliga. He played his first Bundesliga game on August 14, 1971 in a 1-0 win against Arminia Bielefeld. In two years he played 65 times for the clover leaves from the Niederrhein stadium and was missing in only three games. He scored his first and only Bundesliga goal in an Oberhausen uniform on October 4, 1972 at Hertha BSC Berlin with a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute (final score 1:3). There were also nine appearances in the DFB Cup, which he took to the quarter-finals in his first season.
In his first year at RWO he was able to reach safety with 15th place, but this was no longer possible in his second year in the uniform of Oberhausen. After Rot-Weiß Oberhausen was relegated from the Bundesliga in 1973, Gerd Wörmer moved to Hafenstrasse.
He immediately became a regular player at Rot-Weiss Essen. In four years in the Bundesliga he played 123 times in the shirt of the RWE and scored four goals, the first in the final score 1-1 at Werder Bremen on March 16, 1973. There were eleven appearances (two goals ) also in the DFB Cup he led to the semi-final against 1. FC Köln in 1977. With eighth place in the 1975/76 season, he achieved his best Bundesliga position and almost missed out qualification for the UEFA Cup (precursor to the Europa League) by RWE on the last match day due to the worse goal difference. After the 1976/77 season, Rot-Weiss Essen had to go back to the 2nd league. Gerd Wörmer, who is a team member; Considered a smart, stubborn and combative stopper, he played five more times in the 2nd Bundesliga North and ended his active career due to cartilage damage. He then worked in the main money desk of Deutsche Bank in Essen and later in Düsseldorf.
A successful young coach
He stayed with Rot-Weiss Essen as a youth coach and later as a 2nd team coach for a year and won the Lower Rhine Cup with the A-Youth in 1982.
In the team there were young talents Dirk “Putsche” Helmig and Jürgen Wegmann, who soon caused a sensation in the first team and later played for various clubs in the first Bundesliga.
Rot-Weiss Essen warmly congratulates Gerd Wörmer on his 80th birthday and wishes him health and many happy days for the new decade of his life.
