Josef Piontek

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Josef Emanuel Hubertus “Sepp” Piontek (born 5 March 1940 in Wroclaw) is a former German football player and coach. As a player, he won the DFB Cup in 1960/61 with the SV Werder Bremen and became the German champion in 1965. As a coach, he made a name for himself especially through his work with the Danish national football team.

Biography

Career as a player
After World War II and expulsion from home, Piontek entered the East Frisian void in 1945.
In 1949 he began playing football as a centre forward in the youth team at VfL Germania Leer. There he drew attention in the season 1959/60 in the then amateur Oberliga Lower Saxony as goal scorer. As a youth, he also operated athletics and achieved in the long jump, according to his own statement, a best range of 6.31 meters.

Under coach Georg Knöpfle he became a season 1960/61 contract player at Werder Bremen in the then first-class football upper league North. Piontek debuted on 30 October 1960 at a 0-0 in the away game at Bergedorf 85 in the Oberliga. He played in the then predominantly practiced World Cup system at the side of the offensive colleagues Günter Wilmovius, Willi Schröder, Horst Barth and Gerhard Zebrowski in the attack center as a center forward. During his debut round, he played in all runner positions and recorded for the first time on the 12th. In March 1961, in a 4-1 away victory at SC Concordia Hamburg, the right-wing defender position. The young hope was after 21 league appearances (1 goal) at the end of the round at the side of the record shooter Arnold Schütz (22 goals) vice champion in the north and moved with Werder in the final round for the German championship. There he played all six group games against 1st FC Cologne, Hertha BSC and 1st FC Nuremberg. He was used alternately as a right-wing defender and middleman. In 1961, the DFB Cup was played only in the second half of the year. After successes against 1st FC Saarbrücken (1:0), 1st FC Cologne (3:2) and a 3:2 victory after extra time against Karlsruher SC, Piontek and colleagues moved into the on 13th. September 1961 in Gelsenkirchen played final against the 1st FC Kaiserslautern. After a 2-0 he won his first title with Werder Bremen.

His performances also brought him into the notebook of national coach Sepp Herberger. In September 1961 and May 1962, Piontek was used by the DFB as a defender in two international matches of the junior selection U23. In the 1961/62 season, the two games in the European Cup winners stood out against the later winner Atlético Madrid, in which he was confronted with the international class of Atletico wing player Enrique Collar. After three vice championships in the Oberliga Nord from 1961 to 1963 with a total of 75 league appearances, eight games in the final round for the German championship, three appointments to the U23 (the third international match he completed on 25. September 1963 in Karlsruhe against Bulgari