Rolf Starost (born 25 June 1942) 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 defender for

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

club

SC Dynamo Berlin The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was the largest sports club of SV Dynamo, the sports association of the security agencies. The club was reformed after German reunification and succe ...

and for . Starost is a multiple

East Germany national football team The East Germany national football team, recognised as Germany DR by FIFA, represented East Germany in men's international Association football, football, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland national football team ...

junior international.

Sporting career

As a junior player, Starost was active at the East Berlin police club SC Dynamo Berlin. With them, in 1960 he became a

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

junior master. A year earlier, he had been appointed to the Junior National Team of the GDR for which he played his first international match on 23 March 1959. In the GDR - France match (3–1), he played as central defender. Until 1960, he played a total of eight junior country games. For the 1961–62 season, Starost was recorded 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 ...

of the SC Dynamo, but did not play until the tenth match of the season in the encounter Motor Zwickau - SC Dynamo (3–1 loss) as a right-wing defender because the regular player was injured. Until the summer break, Starost contested the three remaining league games. On 13 August 1961, he competed in his last game for SC Dynamo Berlin. He used the opportunity on the day of the construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

, together with his club mate Emil Poklitar after a friendly match at the Danish club

Boldklubben af 1893 Boldklubben af 1893, commonly referred to as B.93, is a football club based in Østerbro, Copenhagen, Denmark. The team competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second level of the Danish football league system, after achieving promotion in t ...

defect Defect or defects may refer to: Related to failure * Angular defect, in geometry * Birth defect, an abnormal condition present at birth * Crystallographic defect, in the crystal lattice of solid materials * Latent defect, in the law of the sale o ...

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

. In West Berlin, Starost first joined

Tennis Borussia Berlin Tennis Borussia Berlin is a German football club based in the locality of Westend in Berlin. History The team was founded in 1902 as ''Berliner Tennis- und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia'' taking its name from its origins as a tennis and ...

, but was not able to play, because the DDR Football Association had managed to impose a one-year ban because of the unauthorized league change. For the 1962–63 season, Starost moved to Viktoria Cologne in the

Oberliga West 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 ...

, then one of the five highest play classes of the

DFB DFB may refer to: Music * Dem Franchize Boyz, an Atlanta hip hop group * Dysfunctional Family BBQ, a New York festival Sport * DFB-Pokal, a football cup competition in Germany Organisations * Furka Steam Railway (), Switzerland * German Footbal ...

. However, he was used under coach

Hennes Weisweiler Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s. With eleven titles, ...

in only two league games. A season later, Starost no longer belonged to Cologne and later no longer appeared in higher-class football. In 1965 he went to a course for coaching at the and worked as a graduate sports teacher.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starost, Rolf Living people 1942 births Men's association football defenders German men's footballers Berliner FC Dynamo players East German men's footballers DDR-Oberliga players FC Viktoria Köln players Defecting sportspeople from East Germany Oberliga (football) players East German emigrants to West Germany Sportspeople from East Berlin West German men's footballers