Eike Heinrich Immel (born 27 November 1960) is a German former professional

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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

from 1975 until 1997 for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

Vfb Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

and

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. He was capped at International level for

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and was part of his nations squads for the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

UEFA Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams ...

and

UEFA Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. France national football team, Fr ...

. Since retiring from football he spent three years as manager of

VfR Heilbronn FC Heilbronn () was a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg formed in 2003 out of a merger between VfR Heilbronn () and Heilbronner SpVgg. In 2012 the club merged with the football departmen ...

before working as a goalkeeping coach for

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

and Fenerbahçe. Immel holds the record for 'most goals conceded by a

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

goalkeeper' with 829 goals conceded in 534 games.

Club career

A leading youth international goalkeeper for

in 1978, Eike Immel was still seventeen years of age when he succeeded Horst Bertram as

's first-choice. He remained Dortmund's top choice until his two million

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

transfer to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

in 1986, the biggest fee ever paid for a goalkeeper in the history of German football at that time. He served nine years as Stuttgart's regular goalkeeper, winning the

title in 1992 and the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

runner-up medal in 1989 with them. Afterwards he left for

, where he retired at the end of the 1996–97 season. He played 534 matches in the German top flight.

International career

His

career lasted for just eight years due to his decision to retire from the West German team following EURO'88. Immel had been the starting goalkeeper since

Harald Schumacher Harald Anton "Toni" Schumacher (born 6 March 1954) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he won a Bundesliga title and three DFB-Pokal titles with 1. FC Köln. At international level, he represen ...

's ban from the team in 1987, and his 19th appearance in the semi-final of the 1988 UEFA European Football Championship at

Volksparkstadion Volksparkstadion () is a football stadium in Hamburg, Germany, with a capacity of 57,000, which makes it the eighth largest stadium in Germany. It has served as the home ground of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV since 1953. The Volksparkstadion ...

, Hamburg, remained his final

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for his country and made him miss out on the title winning

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

squad for which Bodo Illgner then served as starting goalkeeper. The mentioned 1988 UEFA European Football Championship was Immel's fifth participation in a big international tournament. He later admitted his decision to retire from the international game at barely 28 just because of the competition from Bodo Illgner for the goalkeeper's jersey, was extremely hasty. He was included in the squad that won the

1980 UEFA European Championship The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams ...

Coaching career

Immel joined

in 1998 and managed the side until 2001. He has since worked as a goalkeeping coach most notably under

Christoph Daum Christoph Paul Daum (24 October 1953 – 24 August 2024) was a German professional Association football, football manager and player. As a manager, he won eight trophies with clubs from Germany, Turkey and Austria. In 1992, he won the Bundesliga ...

at Fenerbahçe in 2005, having also worked at

and

Personal life

In January 2008, he was a contestant at Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!, the German edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Honours

VfB Stuttgart *

: 1991–92 *

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

runner-up: 1988–89 West Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

runner-up:

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

External links

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Immel, Eike 1960 births Living people People from Marburg-Biedenkopf Footballers from Giessen (region) 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1980 players UEFA Euro 1988 players Borussia Dortmund players Fenerbahçe S.K. (football) non-playing staff Bundesliga players Men's association football goalkeepers Expatriate men's footballers in England German men's footballers German expatriate men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's B international footballers Manchester City F.C. players Premier League players VfB Stuttgart players UEFA European Championship–winning players German football managers West German men's footballers Association football goalkeeping coaches