Jürgen Stars (born 24 June 1948) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

in the

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 footbal ...

and the North American Soccer League.

Career

Stars began his professional career in 1967 in his hometown, with

1. FC Phönix Lübeck 1. FC Phönix Lübeck is a German association football club from the city of Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein. The club has, historically, played at highest level in Germany, with the last stint of this coming from 1957 to 1960 in the tier one Ober ...

in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

. Also playing for Phönix Lübeck that season was defender

Peter Nogly Peter Nogly (born 14 January 1947) is a former German football player and coach. Club career All his 320 West German top-flight matches he made in the Hamburger SV shirt. He played in the North American Soccer League for the Edmonton Dri ...

, who would later become Stars' teammate twice more at Hamburg and Tampa Bay.Homann, Ulrich. (1990). ''Höllenglut an Himmelfahrt . Die Geschichte der Aufstiegsrunden zur Fußballbundesliga 1963-1974''. Essen, Germany. Klartext-Verlag. After four seasons in Lübeck, he joined SV Röchling Völklingen who were initially playing in the

Regionalliga Südwest The Regionalliga Südwest ( en, Regional League Southwest) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. It is one of five leagues at this level, together wit ...

. Stars played there from 1971 to 1977, and under coach Helmuth Johannsen the Völklingen squad twice finished as runner-up 1972 and 1973 in the Bundesliga promotion round. In 1974 his team gained promotion to the 2. Bundesliga South. Between 1974 and 1977, he played in 112 league games at Völklingen.Hoffmann, BF. (2003). ''Das große Lexikon der Bundesligatorhüter''. Berlin, Germany. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. By signing with

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

in 1977, Stars finally made it to top-flight European football in the

. However, he saw limited action in three seasons, serving mostly as the back-up to Rudi Kargus, who was a fixture in goal at HSV. He only played two league games, but was a member of Hamburg's 1979 Bundesliga champion team. While in HSV he appeared in several

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( 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 Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

matches and one

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised ...

match. He also played in the first leg of the

1977 European Super Cup The 1977 European Super Cup was an association football match played over two-legs between German team Hamburger SV and English team Liverpool. The first leg was played at the Volksparkstadion, Hamburg on 22 November 1977 and the second leg was p ...

, a 1–1 draw against

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. In 1980 Stars moved to newly promoted second division side VfR Bürstadt. There he appeared in 25 matches, helping VfR to 13th place in the table. However, since it was the final year that the 2. Bundesliga used the two-track system, Buerstadt was nevertheless relegated in the Amateur Oberliga Hessen for 1981–82.Weinrich, Matthias (2001). ''Zweitliga-Almanach''. Kassel, Germany. Agon-Sportverlag. Beginning in 1981 Stars also played four years in the NASL, initially for the Calgary Boomers. He then briefly returned to Hamburg before joining

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tier ...

during their march to 1981–82 indoor finals. He played three indoor seasons and two outdoor campaigns in Tampa, before moving on to the

Tulsa Roughnecks Tulsa Roughnecks may refer to any of four distinct professional soccer teams: * Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984), the original top-flight team that played in the North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1984. * Tulsa Roughnecks (1993–2000), the te ...

for the 1984 outdoor season. As the starting goalie in Tampa, he won one indoor title in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

as well as a runner-up finish in 1981–82.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19820331&id=fYBXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tjsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6819,8303699 The NASL folded before the 1985, and Stars returned to West Germany. He finished his club career at Altona 93 and VfL Pinneberg. Over the course of his playing days, Notable teammates of Jürgen Stars were

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...

, Ivan Buljan, Arno Steffenhagen, Franz Gerber, Hugo Perez, Tatu, and

Roy Wegerle Roy Wegerle (born March 19, 1964) is a former United States international soccer player who appeared for the national team 41 times between 1992 and 1998. Born and raised in South Africa, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. Since retiri ...

. Because of some previous police training, he earned the nickname "Starski" -a reference to the popular television police drama '' Starsky & Hutch''.

Retirement

After his retirement he served as an assistant coach or goalkeeper coach at several German clubs, including HSV in 1996–97 and SV Halstenbek-Rellingen in the Hamburg Oberliga in 2010. He has referred to his time with Tampa Bay in the NASL as "the best time of my life."

Honors

Röchling Völklingen *

runner-up: 1971–72, 1972–73 Hamburger SV *

: 1978–79 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

runner up: 1979–80 *

runner-up: 1979–80 *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offici ...

runner-up:

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrati ...

Tampa Bay Rowdies * NASL indoor Champion:

* NASL indoor runner-up: 1981–82 * NASL indoor All-star: 1981–82

References

External links

NASL stats
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stars, Jurgen 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Lübeck Footballers from Schleswig-Holstein German men's footballers West German men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players 1. FC Phönix Lübeck players SV Röchling Völklingen players Hamburger SV players Calgary Boomers players Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984) players Altonaer FC von 1893 players West German expatriate men's footballers West German expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada West German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States