He learned to play football at TSV Gilching, and at the age of 28 Gerry Hillringhaus played his first Bundesliga game for FC Bayern.
And 50 years ago he was the first goalkeeper to score a “Goal of the Month”.
Gilching
- He must have done something very special when a former Bundesliga goalkeeper, who was not necessarily one of the big stars, suddenly appeared as a studio guest on the cult program "Blickpunkt Sport" 26 years after his professional career had ended. appears on Bavarian television.
Gerry Hillringhaus, who played for eight years from the age of eight to 16 at TSV Gilching before joining TSV 1860, Türk Gücü and FC Bayern Munich, later also at TSV Herrsching, TSV Utting and again in Gilching Guarded Tor, has made this remarkable TV comeback.
"Once you've done something extraordinary, it pops up again and again," he says in an interview with Starnberg Merkur.
The extraordinary thing was: The “football madman” was the first goalkeeper to score a “goal of the month” (broadcast 50 years ago in the ARD sports show).
Even before Jens Lehmann, Frank Rost and Marvin Hitz.
For the anniversary, the native of Munich, who now lives in Bad Heilbrunn near Bad Tölz, remembers that September 23, 1989: It was the last minute of the game by Türk Gücü at MTV Ingolstadt.
The hosts led 1-0, there was one final corner for the guests trained by the recently deceased lion legend Peter Grosser.
"I thought something had to happen now," said Hillringhaus, who a month earlier was the outstanding man in the 0-0 home opener of Bayernliga promoted SpVgg Starnberg against Türk Gücü.
The goalkeeper stormed forward, at the time actually an absurdity: “We weren't allowed to leave the 16er.
Grosser clapped his hands over his head and called out, what are you doing? ”Too late: His goalkeeper and captain slammed the ball into the mesh with a side puller.
The 1: 1 was voted goal of the month.
“I am on a par with Klaus Fischer, Gerd Müller and Franz Beckenbauer.
That makes me very proud, ”says Hillringhaus, who lived in Andechs at the time and moved back to Gilching in 1990.
Uli Hoeneß personally brought the Bayern fan as a substitute goalkeeper to the Reds.
That was where the next crazy story happened.
At the age of 28, Gerry's Bundesliga dream came true.
Because Raimond Aumann was injured, Hillringhaus was allowed to play for the first time in the football upper house on August 31, 1991 in the 1-1 draw in Cologne.
After the goal of the month, the next career highlight.
The now 58-year-old played a total of 17 Bundesliga and four UEFA Cup games for Bayern.
Then he moved to Schalke 04 for a year (without appearances) and ended his professional career at Tennis Borussia Berlin in the regional league in 1995.
Master lion Bernd Patzke, who trained him in 1860, brought him to the capital in 1993.
But that was far from over for Hillringhaus.
He played for 1. FC Garmisch-Partenkirchen and FC Emmering before Willi Welte persuaded him in September 1999 to switch to TSV Herrsching as a player-coach for one season.
In the winter of 2006 he reappeared at the Ammersee.
Coach Peter Bootz, who played with him in the Gilching youth and later with Türk Gücü in the Bayern League, brought him from SV Pullach to TSV Utting.
“A friendship service.
I didn't want to get down, ”said Bootz.
It worked - thanks to a strong Hillringhaus in the gate.
In the 2012/13 season he helped out again for his home club TSV Gilching-Argelsried.
At 50 in the district league!
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In 1999 Gerry Hillringhaus also played for one season for TSV Herrsching.
© SVJ
The father of three adult daughters (Laura, Christin and Theresa, a successful sports shooter and youth leader at SG Edelweiß Gilching) and grandfather of six lives with his partner Angie in Bad Heilbrunn since 2013.
How did that happen?
“Neither of us are city people, we have always gone to the mountains a lot and like to ride mountain bikes.
It just so happened eight years ago that we found a nice apartment here where we can lead a quiet life, ”reveals the master precision mechanic and CAM milling machine programmer, who drives to work in Wolfratshausen every day.
And football?
Has Hillringhaus now finished?
Because of: his postman, the assistant coach of SV Bad Heilbrunn, asked if he would help out if goalkeeper number one fails.
Hillringhaus did not take long, came to training - and was 58 in the friendly game against Raisting in the Bad Heilbrunner Tor in summer 2020.
“We lost 3-1.
But it was a lot of fun, even if my bones hurt for three days afterwards, ”says the ex-professional.
Are further assignments planned?
“No,” he says.
“It is not my premise that I will run up again.
I think it will stay with one game. "But Hillringhaus wouldn't be Hillringhaus if he didn't keep a small back door open:" Unless something serious happens. "
Whatever: On the Bad Heilbrunn soccer field, you will continue to see the goal scorer of the month from September 1989 as soon as the corona situation allows it again.
“I founded a goalkeeping school for the Heilbrunn youth goalkeeper,” he says.
"And I hope that a few soccer players from the area will come with me for goalkeeping training."
Thomas Ernstberger
