The “Black Panther”
Ex-national goalkeeper Wolfgang Fahrian is dead
04/13/2022, 05:09 p.m
At the 1962 World Cup, Wolfgang Fahrian advanced from nobody to German number one thanks to national coach Sepp Herberger. A special lock prevented further successes. The former goalkeeper of the German national team died on Wednesday night at the age of 80.
Wolfgang Fahrian was actually just happy to be able to take part in the World Cup. The premier league player for TSG Ulm 1846 was 21 years old, international matches: none. But completely unexpectedly, coach fox Sepp Herberger made him the German number one at the 1962 World Cup. Just one episode of a dazzling life that ended on Wednesday night: Wolfgang Fahrian died of pneumonia at the age of 80.
“We are deeply saddened by the death of a true Fortuna legend and express our heartfelt condolences to all family members and friends of Wolfgang Fahrian,” said Fortuna Köln. Fahrian, known as the “black panther”, played for the club from 1969 to 1976, and the cathedral city was the center of his life for more than half his life. Other stations were Ulm, Hertha BSC, 1860 Munich and Fortuna Düsseldorf. After his active career, he worked as a player consultant for a long time. His clients included Jürgen Kohler, Kevin Kuranyi and Kevin-Prince Boateng.
It was very bad for Fahrian more than twelve years ago. After a heart attack in October 2009, he was in a coma for two months and in the hospital for almost nine months, pneumonia and a stroke were also added.
Suspension for earnest payments
He became a goalkeeper because his coach Fred Hoffmann recognized his talent and he enjoyed it, Fahrian told SID on the occasion of his 75th birthday. And not, as is often said, because fellow player Dieter Wirthwein once said to him: “You lie on the ground so often. Why don’t you become a goalkeeper?”
Either way, the retraining was a success. In 1960, Hoffmann converted the then defender Fahrian, after all a Württemberg selection player, into a goalkeeper. Two years later, he drove to the World Cup in Chile as number one – and regular keeper Hans Tilkowski destroyed his room out of frustration. The fact that Germany failed in the round of 16 60 years ago was ultimately Fahrian’s fault.
In the end, however, there were only ten international matches for the great talent. The culprit was a ban due to petty payments when moving to Hertha in 1964. “The club made me an offer that went beyond what was allowed. Who would refuse that?” He asked rhetorically: “It was my job and I had to earn something with it. The others also got more than the allowed 20,000 marks. Nobody asks for that anymore.”