Sigfried Held, a native of Bruntál, celebrated his respectable 80th birthday on Sunday. The German press literally raced with the stories that revolved around the player, who was called Schweiger (Quiet) because of his character, but there was little mention of his beginnings.
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It was only remembered that he grew up in the Bavarian town of Marktheidenfeld with a population of 10,000. Only a handful of media added that he was born in the Czech Sudetenland.
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However, no more was said about his birthplace. There’s still a kind of fog over him.
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Secret native
The two-time World Championship medalist was born in Bruntál on the border of Moravia and Silesia, but the locals don’t know much about the famous compatriot. The search for a football line was already in vain, quite logically, because the football club Slavoj-Olympia was founded in 1945. That is, shortly after the war, when all German associations were abolished by law, Held was only three years old and had not even started to devote himself to organized football he couldn’t
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At least a small reference can be found in the city museum. “There is a card in it about his displacement,” says Pavel Rapušák from the Club for the Old Bruntál, which is devoted to the history of the town and is also looking for people who were born in the town. “A lexicon of 3,000 natives is being prepared, in which Held is mentioned,” Rapušák points out.
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A look at the digitized archive of homeowners yielded no results, again the reason was simple, Held’s family was not wealthy enough to buy their own home. And the record of people registered to live in apartments is not complete.
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Nevertheless, at least after the documentation trip, the famous German attacker will return home. “He is certainly a very interesting character and we will try to find out more about him,” promises Rapušák.
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Immediate removal
However, an examination of official records revealed something. Held was born into a German family, his father Friedrich (born in 1914) was a clerk by profession. He and his wife Margarete (1918) had one more son, one-year-old Friedrich at the time of the deportation.
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The family suffered a very similar fate to many other Germans after the end of World War II. Although she did not cooperate in any way with the occupation regime, the deportation “back to the Reich”, as it was said at the time, concerned her directly.
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In June 1946 they were evicted to the Machold concentration camp, where they waited for transport and in September 1946 they were sent by train to another concentration camp in Domažlice. This was already a US occupation zone. From there they were transferred to a refugee camp in Würzburg and subsequently assigned to the village of Marktheidenfeld, where the father found a job at the railway station and the mother became an auxiliary worker on a local farm.
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In the first wave alone, 3,700 Germans were removed from Bruntál, mostly pensioners, women and children.
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Enthusiasm and discipline
Both sons soon found the only entertainment and filling of free time after school – football. It was played daily, every afternoon until dark, until all the boys were “recalled” for dinner. Sigfried’s father understood Sigfried’s enthusiasm and had him enrolled in the local club Turn Verein 1884. Daily training was, as “Siggi” himself later said, along with discipline, the key to future football success.
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After graduating from secondary business school, he practiced in a tax consultant’s company, soon became a proficient tax preparer himself and managed the accounting for several relatives. At the age of twenty, he was drafted into the service of the Bundeswehr, where he was noticed during one match with the suburban club by representatives of Kickers Offenbach and continuously followed him during his military duties.
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He was called to the selection of promising military athletes, which was led by Dettmar Cramer, assistant to the national team coach Sepp Herberger. At the age of 21, he appeared not only on the Offenbach Kicker pitch, on the Bieberer Berg, but also at the world military games – World Cup Military, which were held annually from 1946, later from 1972, always with a one-year break.
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Held lasted only two seasons in the red and white Kickers jersey and moved to Bundesliga Dortmund (1965–1971 and 1977–1979), where he and Reinhard Libuda and Lothar Emmerich formed the striking force of the black and yellow. His fame grew, coach Willi Multhaup declared him to be “born for football”.
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The gate to the national team opened wide for him.
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Medalist and coach
He made his debut in a friendly match with England at the Empire Stadium in London (February 23, 1966 – 0:1), and his international debut was a duel with Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow (November 14, 1973 – 1:1). He is decorated with the medal of the vice-champion of the world from 1966 and the bronze from the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. He never played against the selection of the country where he was born.
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Sigfried Held
Born on August 7, 1942, Bruntál-Freudenthal
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TV Marktheidenfeld (1954–1963), Kickers Offenbach (1963-1965), Borussia Dortmund (1965-1971), Kickers Offenbach (1971-1977), Borussia Dortmund (1977-1979), SC Preussen Munster (1979), Bayer 05Uerdingen (1979-1981).
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National team of the Federal Republic of Germany: 1966–1973 (41/5)
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Achievements: 1966 World Cup silver, 1970 World Cup bronze, 1966 Cup Winners’ Cup winner
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Schalke 04 (1981–19839), BV 08 Lüttringhausen (1984), Iceland national team (1986–1989), Galatasaray Istanbul / Turkey (1989–1990), FC Admira-Wacker Vienna / Austria (1990–1993), Dynamo Dresden (1993 –1994), Gamba Osaka / Japan (1995), VfB Leipzig (1996–1998), Malta national team (2000–2003), Thai national team (2004–2005).
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He has two children with his wife Christine, the son is a successful psychoanalyst, the daughter is a biologist.
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He worked as a coach in many German and foreign clubs, led the national teams of Iceland, Malta and Thailand. However, there was no mention of his Moravian origin. “I know that he also coached Schalke 04, when there were celebrations, it was reminiscent of that,” admits Jiří Němec, the Czech personality of this club. “But I didn’t know that he was born here, it was never even mentioned,” he confirms.
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A quiet man
The celebrations of Held’s 80th birthday only proved how popular and well-liked he became in Germany. The vast majority of fans associate him with a very special quality that also earned him his legendary nickname: schweiger – quiet. And everyone who knows him adds in one breath that even the “silent” one can say big sentences.
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The unforgettable story of the dog that bit an opponent’s buttocks during Dortmund’s match with Schalke 04 in 1969 was retold. Held just smiled at the memory, then said with a smirk: “You have to admire how smart dogs we had in Dortmund back then. They could bite anyone on the field. But not. They chose Schalke players of all people!’
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Held did not find his nickname interesting for a long time, he even considered it inappropriate. He perceives himself rather as someone who likes to talk a lot, just not all the time and with everyone. As journalists kept wanting to find out more and more about the inner workings of the dressing room, he became withdrawn. Once someone asked him how he was doing. He replied: “Do you want to sound me off?” The next morning he could read his new nickname in the newspaper, which he never got rid of.
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Not even as a coach. Many years later, during his time at Dynamo Dresden, sports director Udo Klug said of him: “Siggi doesn’t usually talk, but he says a lot!”
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