Hardly any other name is associated with Werder Bremen as closely as that of Horst-Dieter Höttges. The defender celebrated his greatest successes in the DFB jersey. Now the 79-year-old has died.
Whoever played against Horst-Dieter Höttges didn’t have much fun. The former football world champion got his nickname “Eisenfuss” for a good reason. The club legend of SV Werder Bremen showed no consideration on the field – the defender neither spared himself nor his opponents.
“He was one of the most unpleasant opponents I had to play against,” said Bayern icon Gerd Müller, who died two years ago, about his national team colleague. Sepp Herberger, the 1954 world champion coach, said: “It’s a punishment for any player to play against this man.”
Now the 1974 World Champion and 1972 European Champion has died. As SV Werder announced on Monday, citing his family, Höttges died on June 22 at the age of 79 in a retirement home near Bremen. In the last years of his life he had suffered from dementia.
Feared and recognized
Höttges’ robust style of play was feared and recognized – and it gave him an extraordinary football career. “Horst-Dieter Höttges helped shape a successful era and won the biggest titles with the German team,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf in recognition of the 66-time national player. “In teams that, in retrospect, are praised primarily for their level of play, he was the diligent worker for whom no distance was too far, no job too difficult – and he made his colleagues shine.” No team can be successful without players like him.
Höttges was born on September 10, 1943 in Mönchengladbach. He also played for Borussia for some time. When the legendary coach Hennes Weisweiler came in 1964, he left. Weisweiler’s and Höttges’ styles of play – that didn’t go together.
HSV idol Uwe Seeler wanted to steer Höttges to Hamburg. But in the end he got stuck in Bremen. “With Horst-Dieter Höttges we are losing one of the greatest Werder players of all time and one of the best footballers Germany has ever had,” said Werder President Hubertus Hess-Grunewald.
Champion in the first season
In his very first season on the Weser, Höttges became German champion, fourth in the Bundesliga in 1966 and runner-up in 1968. Schalke legend Stan Libuda once said before a game in Bremen: “No, coach. I don’t even need to ride there. It’s against Höttges. I see the ball twice: when it kicks off and when they do that scored a goal.”
In the 1970s, however, Werder glory was over. Often relegation and never a title fight was announced. “Werder will not be relegated with me,” said Höttges once and kept his word. Werder’s honorary captain played 420 Bundesliga games for Bremen and scored 55 goals. Two years after his retirement in 1978, Werder had to go to the second division.
Höttges experienced his greatest successes in the DFB jersey. In March 1965 he played his first senior international match against Italy – he had 66 in total by 1974. Besides being world champion in 1974, he was runner-up in England in 1966 and third at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
In addition, the legendary team around Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Günter Netzer won the European Championship. He made his last international match at the 1974 World Cup, of all things, in the 1-0 defeat by East Germany when his opponent Jürgen Sparwasser scored the decisive goal in Hamburg.
Even after his career, Höttges stayed in Bremen. He didn’t want to leave, even during his career when big clubs lured him. “I’ve always felt way too comfortable in this small town of Bremen.”
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
