Fritz Szepan
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Friedrich "Fritz" Szepan (2 September 1907 – 14 December 1974) was a German
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 ...
in the period leading up to and including
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He spent his entire career with
Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...
where he won six national championships and one
German Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English, is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundes ...
. He is commonly regarded as one of the greatest Schalke players of all time. To celebrate the 100th birthday of the club, the supporters voted the Schalker Jahrhundertelf, the "Team of the century": he was included in the midfield. From 1929 to 1938 he played for the Germany national team which he led as captain in 30 matches and during two
World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
. Usually a highly skilled midfielder, his versatility allowed him to play centre half and as forward. He was not very fast, however he compensated his lack of speed with fantastic intelligence, technique and positional play. Because of his extraordinary game understanding and leadership, he was later known as " Beckenbauer before the war".


Career


Youth

Szepan was born in 1907 in the industrial town of
Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...
, in a family that came to Gelsenkirchen from the
East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
n ''Kreis Neidenburg''. His father moved to the industrial centre of the
Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
area to find work in the
mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
industry. In the typical working-class milieu of the "Kohlenpott", young Fritz grew up as one of six children in the family. The straw-blonde boy played soccer in the neighborhood street teams. After leaving school without a degree, Szepan completed an apprenticeship as a
tinsmith A tinsmith is a historical term for a skilled craftsperson who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession was also known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profe ...
at Küppersbusch and also ensured that his company's apprentice football team was successful. He joined Schalke 04 as a youth player in 1924 and remained with the side until his retirement in 1950. He first played for the senior side at the age of 17 in 1924. At the instigation of his friend Ernst Kuzorra, Szepan joined the first team squad of
FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, ...
in 1925 at the age of 18. He and his brother-in-law Ernst Kuzorra led Schalke during the era of the team's greatest success in the 1930s when it was the dominant club in Germany. Together they established the famous "''Schalker Kreisel''" system that used short flat passes to overwhelm their opponent's defence.


Career at FC Schalke 04

After Kuzorra and Szepan had established themselves in Schalke's first team, it developed into one of the best German club teams. In 1934, Schalke won the German championship for the first time, beating 1. FC Nürnberg 2-1 in the final, in which Szepan equalized in the 88th minute and Kuzorra scored the winning goal. Thanks to the perfectly celebrated "gyro", the art of the centimetre-precise, fast flat pass, free running and dribbling, the team in the royal blue jersey rushed from success to success in the following years. The fathers of success and central figures in the game system were Kuzorra and Szepan. This compensated for his lack of liveliness and speed with game intelligence, overview, technique and outstanding positional play. As a
playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a footballer who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing Passing (association football), passing moves which lead to Goal (sport), goals, through ...
, Szepan was the thinker and leader of the team, Kuzorra was an iron-hard full-blooded striker and executor. Because of his extraordinary understanding of the game and his leadership on the pitch, Szepan was subsequently ennobled as a "pre-war cymbal builder". Nominally as a striker on the field, he usually let himself fall and directed the game from deep. Constructive play structure, under the direction of Szepan, was the key to the success of Schalke Kreisel. In 1935 the
championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...
title was defended with a 6:4 win over
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 ...
. Two years later, the “Knappen” won the first double in German football history with a championship and
DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...
. By 1942, Schalke had been in the championship final four more times, winning in
1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...
,
1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...
and
1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...
. Schalke 04 dominated German football during this period and laid the foundation for the “Schalke legend”. The 1942 championship was to be the last championship for Schalke 04 in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and at the same time the last title for 16 years. After the end of the war, “blonde Fritz” helped rebuild FC Schalke before ending his career in 1949 due to knee problems and back pain. On 12 November 1950, Szepan and his brother-in-law Kuzorra officially bid farewell in a game against
Clube Atlético Mineiro The Clube Atlético Mineiro (), commonly known as Atlético Mineiro and colloquially as the Galo (, "Rooster"), is a professional association football club in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Minas ...
in Schalke's Glückauf-Kampfbahn.


Career in the national team

Unlike Kuzorra, Szepan also had a successful international career. From 1929 to 1939 he played for the Germany national team which he led as captain in 30 matches and during two
World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
. In 1938, Szepan was named captain of the "Unified Germany" team shortly after the
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
. He started out at inside right but gained international recognition in his interpretation of the
centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...
role. Szepan made the play of Schalke and the Germany national side at a time when other centre halves were largely committed to covering the opposing centre forward. He however was not an easy-going player and declared his retirement from international play more than once. Szepan had a comeback in late 1936, playing at
inside left In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...
. His displays again reached the high level of his 1934 World Cup performance and by 1937 Szepan was the outstanding playmaker of the Breslau XI. After his retirement in 1950, Szepan remained active as coach for
Wuppertaler SV Wuppertaler SV is a Football in Germany, German association football club located in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. The city was founded in the year of 1880 by the union of a number of smaller towns including Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, Cr ...
, Schalke 04 and Rot-Weiß Essen, leading that club to the German championship in 1955. He served Schalke again as club president from 1964 to 1967. He died on 14 December 1974 in his hometown Gelsenkirchen. In his 1978 book "Fussball",
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 Germany national team in four consecutive World Cup tournaments, including ...
characterised Szepan as follows: "One from the gallery of great playmakers, not markedly pacy, but talented to make the game pacy. He knew how to play directly but also capable of great solos - all that while being strong enough defensively to have played as a stopper. A commander."


Career statistics


Club


International


Trivia

*He and fellow Schalke star Ernst Kuzorra married each other's sisters, and thus became brothers-in-law.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Szepan, Fritz 1907 births 1974 deaths German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers FC Schalke 04 players 1934 FIFA World Cup players 1938 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from Gelsenkirchen Sportspeople from the Province of Westphalia German football managers FC Schalke 04 managers Men's association football forwards West German men's footballers West German football managers