The "Beckenbauer of the East": Hans-Jürgen Dörner died

2022-01-19T14:24:59.739Z

The "Beckenbauer of the East": Hans-Jürgen Dörner died Created: 01/19/2022 15:09 Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner, former soccer player for SG Dynamo Dresden, is standing in the Great Garden. © Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Archive image Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner is an integral part of the history of Dynamo Dresden and of East German football. He was a pioneer of a modern game interpretation. A

The "Beckenbauer of the East": Hans-Jürgen Dörner died

Created: 01/19/2022 15:09

Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner, former soccer player for SG Dynamo Dresden, is standing in the Great Garden.

Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner is an integral part of the history of Dynamo Dresden and of East German football.

He was a pioneer of a modern game interpretation.

After a serious illness, Dörner died shortly before his 71st birthday.

Dresden – He was always dubbed the "Beckenbauer of the East", even if Hans-Jürgen Dörner never liked it himself. The GDR football legend died on Wednesday night at the age of 70 after a long and serious illness in his Dresden apartment, the lawyer for Dörner's family said. Born in Görlitz, he played exclusively for Dynamo Dresden in the adult division; he won the championship and the cup of the GDR five times.

Dörner had to put up with the comparison with Franz Beckenbauer. Just like the Munich "Kaiser", Dörner, who was only called "Dixie", interpreted the libero in a very special way: technically adept with a good eye for the open spaces and an incomparable forward drive. The trained attacker scored 101 goals in 558 games for Dynamo - mainly after solos, but also with free kicks and long-range shots.

"With his outstanding skills as an absolutely exceptional player, he completely reinterpreted the libero game with particular elegance. Equally noteworthy is his great commitment to the interests of our sports community after his active career. SG Dynamo Dresden will miss his competence and his huge wealth of experience as well as his personality and humanity in the active committee work. But all of this fades into the background at this moment. We lost an admirable personality, which tears a big hole in our midst," said Dynamo President Holger Scholze in a club statement.

In 1967 Dörner came to Dresden from Görlitz.

"Dynamo Dresden is different," he said three years ago in a dpa interview about his decision to play with the Dynamos forever.

In 1969 the rapid rise of the Saxons to become the best GDR club of the 1970s began.

Successful coach Walter Fritzsch relied on talented young players who interpreted the famous "Dresdner Kreisel".

And right in the middle of it all, Dörner, who developed more and more into a leading figure.

And so he quickly came into the sights of the GDR selection coach.

Dörner received 100 international calls, culminating in Olympic gold in Montreal in 1976.

The Dresdener missed the only World Cup participation of a GDR national team - 1974 in the Federal Republic - because of jaundice.

After his 100th international match, his selection career ended just as abruptly as his sporting career did a little later.

Dörner initially became a junior coach at Dynamo, before moving to the German Football Association (DFB) in the same capacity and as an assistant to national coach Berti Vogts.

He gave up this commitment in 1996 when Werder Bremen tried to get him.

The Bundesliga club, which was threatened with relegation at the time and which Dörner still led to ninth place, was his only coaching position in the upper house.

This was followed by positions at FSV Zwickau, Al-Ahly Cairo and VfB Leipzig.