Werner Fuchs (25 October 1948 – 11 May 1999) 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 and coach.

Playing career

Fuchs was born in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

. A centre forward, he began his professional career in 1967 with a professional contract at

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

, where is older brother

Fritz Fritz is a common German language, German male name. The name originated as a German diminutive of Friedrich (given name), Friedrich or Frederick (given name), Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Fred ...

also played professionally. Werner Fuchs only appeared once in the first team against

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. They compete in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier o ...

on 10 February 1968, and would remain his only appearance in the

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 ...

. Although he did feature in another Bundesliga team,

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

in 1972, he transferred to the regional league team

SC Preußen Münster SC Preußen Münster (English: Prussia Münster) is a German sports club based in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia which is mostly recognised for its Association football, football section. The football team currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga w ...

in that same season without making an appearance. He played on in Münster until his retirement in 1980.

Coaching career

His greatest achievements came as a football manager. As trainer of

Alemannia Aachen Aachener Turn- und Sportverein Alemannia 1900 e. V., short Alemannia Aachen (), is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long-term fixture of the country's second division, Alemannia enjoyed a three- ...

, he enjoyed huge popularity among the citizens of

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

. He was trainer there from 1984 to 1987, and then again from 1996 until his death in 1999. He took Alemannia Aachen back into the 2. Bundesliga, but was unable to continue his success as a few days before the final league game, which Aachen won to secure promotion, he collapsed during a walk in the woods with the team and died of a heart attack aged 50. He continues to be honoured by Aachen fans today, with signs in the stadium, for example.

Tributes

On the tenth anniversary of Werner Fuchs' death, Alemannia Aachen announced that the new amateur stadium belonging to the also New Tivoli stadium would be named the "Werner-Fuchs-Stadion", following suggestions from fans. In honor of Werner Fuchs, the club renamed “The South Stand” to “Werner-Fuchs-Tribüne” in July 2021.

References

External links

Obituary

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Werner 1948 births 1999 deaths German men's footballers Footballers from Kaiserslautern Men's association football forwards Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players SV Alsenborn players Hannover 96 players SC Preußen Münster players German football managers Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers Alemannia Aachen managers 1. FC Saarbrücken managers Hertha BSC managers Eintracht Braunschweig managers VfB Oldenburg managers Wuppertaler SV managers West German men's footballers West German football managers