Günter Sawitzki (22 November 1932 – 14 December 2020) was a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player.

Career

Sawitzki's performances for underdog side SV Sodingen in the then best German division caught the attention of West German coach

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 ...

and made Sawitzki a proposed rival to

Heinz Kwiatkowski Heinrich "Heinz" Kwiatkowski (16 July 1926 – 23 May 2008) was a German football goalkeeper. He was born in Gelsenkirchen. As a goalkeeper, Kwiatkowski's specialty was to fist the ball away, which earned him the nickname "Heini Fausten". Career ...

and

Fritz Herkenrath Friedrich "Fritz" Herkenrath (9 September 1928 in Cologne – 18 April 2016) was a Association football, football Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Germany national football team, West Germany at the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He earne ...

for the role as

Toni Turek Anton Turek (18 January 1919 – 11 May 1984) was a German association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Career Born in Duisburg, Turek started his career at Duisburger Sportverein, but he soo ...

's successor in the West German goal. Before Sawitzki left tiny Sodingen, who had finished third in Germany in 1955, to join

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 1956, he had already played in two games 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 ...

. Sawitzki's biggest success as a player was winning the

West German Cup The Western German Cup (German: Westdeutscher Pokal) was a cup competition organised by the Western German Football Association, which was played from the 1949–50 season up to the 1973–74 season. The best teams then qualified for the following ...

in 1958 with Stuttgart. Sticking with

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 ...

side VfB Stuttgart for the rest of his career, the

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 ...

was in the squads of

at the

1958 FIFA World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the 6th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first and only FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Br ...

and

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between ...

, although he remained reserve on both occasions. Until 1963 he won ten caps.

Honours

fourth place

References

External links

* * * * 1932 births 2020 deaths German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's B international footballers VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players Bundesliga players 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia West German men's footballers Sportspeople from the Province of Westphalia {{Germany-footy-goalkeeper-stub