Horst-Dieter Höttges (born 10 September 1943) is a German former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a defender. Having started his career with hometown club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional football club based in Mönchengladbach, Nort ...

, he spent most of his career with

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

. At international level, he represented

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

from 1965 to 1974, amassing 66 caps and scoring 1 goal.

Club career

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Born in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Möncheng ...

, Höttges began playing football at local sides Blau-Weiß Bahl and Rheydter SV before joining

at the age of 17. After three years in the youth of Mönchengladbach he was taking part for them in their

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

campaign of 1963–64 with Mönchengladbach manager

Hennes Weisweiler Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s. With 11 titles, 8 with ...

feeling Höttges' way of playing was not he was looking for and the defender was forced to move on.

Werder Bremen

Ahead of the 1964–65 season he signed with

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

team

and enjoyed immediate success under

Willi Multhaup Willi Multhaup (19 July 1903 – 18 December 1982) was a German football manager and player who led Borussia Dortmund to victory in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1966. Career Multhaup won the 1964–65 Bundesliga with Werder Bremen. He won the E ...

at the

Weser-Stadion Weserstadion () is a multi-purpose stadium in Bremen, Germany. The Weserstadion is scenically situated on the north bank of the Weser River and is surrounded by lush green parks (the name 'Werder' is a regional German word for "river peninsula") ...

, ending up winner of the Bundesliga title with Werder at the end of the same season. This outstanding success with Werder Bremen was a key for the full back to be called up by

Helmut Schön Helmut Schön (15 September 1915 – 23 February 1996) was a German football player and manager. He is best remembered for his exceptional career as manager of the West German national team in four consecutive World Cup tournaments, including ...

for the German team already in 1965, a time when his toughness in tackling duels earned him his "Eisenfuß" (''iron foot'') nickname. Although Werder Bremen could not recopy the success of 1965, and became rather a relegation battler than a title chaser, Höttges remained loyal to them and served in the Bundesliga until 1978, scoring 55 goals in his 420 appearances for the North German side. His commitment to a half-a-day employment as sales representative for a manufacturer of sports goods forced him to hang up his boots that summer. Höttges put job before club, unwilling to give up his business, and got named "Ehrenspielführer" (''honorary captain'') due to his career efforts by Werder Bremen.

Later years

Later on he was showing up for some time on amateur level for

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 kilometres southw ...

's SC Oberbecksen and TSV Achim, a club in a village near

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

, where he settled down. He was partly coaching that club in an honorary capacity in the 1990s.

International career

On 13 March 1965, Horst-Dieter Höttges debuted for

in a friendly against Italy (1–1) at

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

's Volksparkstadion. Hamburg's Volksparkstadion was also the place where he won the last of his sixty-six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for West Germany during the memorable first round defeat at the hands of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

in the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

. The defeat of the West Germans in the politically and emotionally exaggerated match lead coach Helmut Schön to significant changes in his line-up and limiting Höttges to a bench role was one of those. It resulted in the defenders subsequent retirement from international football after the

final (West) Germany won against their Dutch opponents. His first of altogether three World Cup participations Höttges enjoyed in 1966 as part of the runner-up squad of (West) Germany in England. He was further a member of the squad for the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to 21 June in Mexico, it was the first World Cup tournament held outside ...

(third-place finish) and was a starter for his country in the

UEFA Euro 1972 The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972. Only four ...

final against in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 18 June. He and his teammates beat the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

that day to win Germany's first UEFA European Football Championship trophy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hottges, Horst-Dieter 1943 births Living people Sportspeople from Mönchengladbach Association football defenders German footballers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia Germany international footballers Germany B international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players Borussia Mönchengladbach players SV Werder Bremen players 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players UEFA Euro 1972 players UEFA European Championship-winning players