Günter Bernard (born 4 November 1939) 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 ...

. He is the son of Robert Bernard who was a German international football player himself.

Club career

Bernard was born in

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a town#Germany, city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding Schweinfurt (district), district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultur ...

, Germany. He joined

SV 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. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

in the founding year of

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 ...

from boyhood outfit Schweinfurt 05, for whom he had played top-tier matches in the

Oberliga Süd Oberliga () may refer to: Association football * Oberliga (football), currently the fifth tier of the German football league system, formerly the first * DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of football in East Germany until 1990, replaced by the NOFV-O ...

since 1958. He stayed loyal to Bremen until his retirement in 1974 and was the club's first choice in their surprise Bundesliga winning campaign in 1965. He altogether played 287 times on that level for the North Germans.

International career

His West Germany career started with a youth call-up in 1961 that prompted

Sepp Herberger Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 – 28 April 1977) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West Germany national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed '' The Mir ...

to take him to the senior level a year later. Competing with

Wolfgang Fahrian Wolfgang Fahrian (31 May 1941 – 12 April 2022) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Playing career Having been a defender initially, Fahrian was trained as a goalkeeper following a goalkeeper shortage at TSG Ulm 1 ...

and

Hans Tilkowski Hans Tilkowski (12 July 1935 – 5 January 2020) was a German football player and manager. A goalkeeper. he played for West Germany, and was a member of the team that lost the 1966 World Cup final to England. Career Born 1935 in Husen, Dortmun ...

for the job in goal of West Germany at that time, Bernard made his first West Germany appearance under contract with 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 on 24 October 1962. The Bundesliga trophy he won with Werder Bremen, three years later, helped him to achieve a spot in

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 ...

's squad for the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

, but did not give him the competitive edge he had been longing for. So Hans Tilkowski was the West German keeper at the tournament. Bernard made his fifth and final game for West Germany as a substitute for

Horst Wolter Horst Wolter (born 8 June 1942 in Berlin, Germany) is a German former international footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career A Bundesliga winner with Eintracht Braunschweig in 1967, Wolter played almost 250 West German top-flight m ...

against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in 1968.

Honours

Werder Bremen *

: 1964–65, runner-up 1967–68 Germany *

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

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

References

1939 births Living people Footballers from Schweinfurt German men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Germany men's international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players Bundesliga players 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 players SV Werder Bremen players West German men's footballers {{Germany-footy-goalkeeper-stub