At 57 years old
“Gamer type of player”: Former Freiburg football professional Heidenreich dies
SC Freiburg mourns the loss of its former midfielder Maximilian Heidenreich. The Baden Bundesliga soccer team announced that he died after a serious illness.
Maximilian Heidenreich is dead. The former libero had his wedding at SC Freiburg in the 90s. As the club has now announced, the former professional footballer has died at the age of 57 after a serious illness. SC Freiburg referred to Heidenreich’s family. The former midfielder spent the last weeks of his life there in Waldkirch, it was said. The “Badische Zeitung” reports that Heidenreich died as a result of colon cancer. “Freiburg mourns the loss of a great footballer,” says the Breisgauer statement. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Heidenreich’s career started in Hanover when he was brought into the team as a 17-year-old. That was in the mid-80s, Hannover was playing in the second division at the time and was in need of money. The young player Heidenreich proved himself, was soon part of the regular team and was promoted to the first league with Hannover 96 in 1985/86. After that, Heidenreich changed often. “Too many clubs in too early years,” the club quoted coach Volker Finke as saying. But he was looking for exactly that type of player for SC Freiburg at the time: “Gamer type of player and passionate in all areas of life.”
Maximilian Heidenreich played 173 competitive games for Freiburg
Finke brought Heidenreich to Freiburg in 1992, when the club was still playing in the second division. Heidenreich was trained as a libero in Breisgau and quickly earned the nickname “Breisgau Brazilian” on the court. Heidenreich’s style of play is said to have reminded Finke of another great footballer: Franz Beckenbauer. Heidenreich is a “symbol of a sports club [gewesen]”which first amazed the very manageable football town of Freiburg and then the whole of football Germany,” the club said on its homepage.
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Heidenreich played a total of 173 competitive games for Freiburg in the 1990s. He didn’t appear more often for any other club in his professional career, which included playing for his hometown club Hannover 96 as well as 1860 Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Basel, VfL Wolfsburg and SG Wattenscheid.
Heidenreich was one of the players who significantly helped SC Freiburg to establish itself in the Bundesliga. Among other things, the club’s promotion to the first Bundesliga was one of the former midfielder’s greatest successes. That was in 1993. Two years later, SC Freiburg even managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup. This was the first time for SC Freiburg in this competition.
After his career, Heidenreich worked as a trainer. He coached SV Weil and FC Denzlingen, among others.
Sources: “, “, with material from the DPA
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Source: Stern
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