Olaf Seier (born 25 November 1958) is a German retired

football player 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 became famous as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

1. FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was founded. During the Co ...

during the 1980s.

Career

Olaf Seier, nicknamed "Leo" due to his long lion-like hair, started playing football with the

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

based sports community SG Dynamo Rostock-Mitte ( de) in 1970. He then joined the

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

BFC Dynamo Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e. V., commonly abbreviated to BFC Dynamo () or BFC (), alternatively sometimes called Dynamo Berlin, is a German football club based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg of Ber ...

in 1972, where he went through all age groups. Seier eventually achieved a place in first team of BFC Dynamo and made his first appearance with the first team of BFC Dynamo away against ASG Vorwärt Kemens in the second round of the 1979–80 FDGB-Pokal on 19 October 1979. He then made his debut for BFC Dynamo in the

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the Allied-occupied G ...

during the second half of the 1979–80 season. Seier would then make his international debut for BFC Dynamo in the

1980–81 European Cup The 1980–81 European Cup was the 26th season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football competition. The tournament was won for a third time by Liverpool, who beat six-time champions Real Madrid in the final. In the 11 seasons up to and ...

. Seier had relatives in West Berlin, which would prove problematic for his career. He made several appearances with the first team of BFC Dynamo in the DDR-Oberliga, but would regularly be excluded from international matches. The official explanation for his exclusion was that he was too young and inexperienced. But another possible reason may have been that he was viewed as a risk by sports officials because of his relatives in the West. Seier claims that he had learned from behind the backs that people were afraid that he might defect. Seier wanted to change club. He came at odds with the sports officials and was eventually threatened with a lifetime ban from playing in the top two tiers by a SED party secretary. With the help of the former BFC Dynamo coach Harry Nippert, he was allowed to change to

in 1983. Nippert was the coach of Union Berlin in the 1982–83 season. Seier played 35 matches in the DDR-Oberliga and scored four goals in the league until his last season with BFC Dynamo. He also made four appearances for BFC Dynamo in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

. Seier became three times East German champion with BFC Dynamo. Seier made his debut for Union Berlin in the DDR-Oberliga in 1983. Although he came from the traditional arch-enemy, he slowly became popular among his new fans. Already during his first days with Union Berlin he dominated the way the team played. His first season was marked by bad luck for Union Berlin, and the team was relegated to the

DDR-Liga The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...

. The team achieved promotion back to the DDR-Oberliga one year later and eventually finished the

1985–86 DDR-Oberliga The 1985–86 DDR-Oberliga was the 37th season of the DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of league football in East Germany. The league was contested by fourteen teams. BFC Dynamo won the championship, the club's eighth of ten consecutive East German ...

in 7th place. Seier went to play for

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

in Venezuela after

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

. He returned home and played for the Berlin club 1. FC Lübars at the beginning of the 1994–95 season.''„Stadiongeflüster“''
, Article in the Berlin-based daily newspaper

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (; ) is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since Reunification of Germany, reunification. It is published by Berl ...

, of 20 December 1995.

References

External links

Member Statistics of 1. FC Union Berlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seier, Olaf 1958 births Living people German men's footballers 1. FC Union Berlin players East German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Rostock Footballers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Sportspeople from Bezirk Rostock Caracas F.C. players German expatriate sportspeople in Venezuela German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Venezuela