Fritz Szepan

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Fritz Szepan
Personal information
Full name Friedrich Szepan
Date of birth (1907-09-02)2 September 1907
Place of birth Gelsenkirchen, German Empire
Date of death 14 December 1974(1974-12-14) (aged 67)
Place of death Gelsenkirchen, West Germany
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
1924–1925 Schalke 04
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1925–1950 Schalke 04 265 (199)
International career
1929–1939 Germany 34 (8)
Managerial career
1949–1954 Schalke 04
1954–1956 Rot-Weiss Essen
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Germany
FIFA World Cup
Third place 1934 Italy
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Friedrich "Fritz" Szepan (2 September 1907 – 14 December 1974) was a German

German Cup. He is commonly regarded as one of the greatest Schalke players of all time.[citation needed] To celebrate the 100th birthday of the club, the supporters voted the Schalker Jahrhundertelf, the "Team of the century": he was included in the midfield. From 1929 to 1938 he played for the Germany national team which he led as captain in 30 matches and during two World Cups
.

Usually a highly skilled midfielder, his versatility allowed him to play centre half and as forward. He was not very fast, however he compensated his lack of speed with fantastic intelligence, technique and positional play. Because of his extraordinary game understanding and leadership, he was later known as "

Beckenbauer before the war".[1]

Career

Fritz Szepan was born in 1907 in the industrial town of Gelsenkirchen, in a family that came to Gelsenkirchen from the East Prussian Kreis Neidenburg. He joined Schalke 04 as a youth player in 1924 and remained with the side until his retirement in 1950. He first played for the senior side at the age of 17 in 1924. He and his brother-in-law Ernst Kuzorra led Schalke during the era of the team's greatest success in the 1930s when it was the dominant club in Germany. Together they established the famous "Schalker Kreisel" system that used short flat passes to overwhelm their opponent's defence.

Unlike Kuzorra, Szepan also had a successful international career. From 1929 to 1939

inside left
. His displays again reached the high level of his 1934 World Cup performance and by 1937 Szepan was the outstanding playmaker of the Breslau XI.

After his retirement in 1950, Szepan remained active as coach for

Rot-Weiß Essen,[3]
leading that club to the German championship in 1955. He served Schalke again as club president from 1964 to 1967. He died on 14 December 1974 in his hometown Gelsenkirchen.

In his 1978 book "Fussball", Helmut Schön characterised Szepan as follows:

"One from the gallery of great playmakers, not markedly pacy, but talented to make the game pacy. He knew how to play directly but also capable of great solos - all that while being strong enough defensively to have played as a stopper. A commander."

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[4][5]
Club Season League German
Champ'ship		 Cup[a] Other[b] Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Schalke 04 1924–26 Emscher-Kreisliga 5 7 — — — 5 7
1926–27 Gauliga Ruhr 11 12 1 0 — 8 0 20 12
1927–28 Gauliga Ruhr 10 7 1 1 — 9 4 20 12
1928–29 Gauliga Ruhr 13 18 2 3 — 8 10 23 31
1929–30 Gauliga Ruhr 16 11 2 1 — 6 5 24 17
1930–31 Gauliga Ruhr 0 0 — — ="2"|— 0 0
1931–32 Gauliga Ruhr 10 14 3 2 — 5 4 18 20
1932–33 Gauliga Ruhr 14 7 4 2 — 5 6 23 15
1933–34 Gauliga Westfalen 16 5 8 4 — — 24 9
1934–35 Gauliga Westfalen 6 4 7 2 — — 13 6
1935–36 Gauliga Westfalen 15 8 8 3 6 3 — 29 14
1936–37 Gauliga Westfalen 14 15 8 6 6 2 — 28 23
1937–38 Gauliga Westfalen 9 8 9 3 4 2 — 22 13
1938–39 Gauliga Westfalen 16 10 8 5 1 0 — 25 15
1939–40 Gauliga Westfalen 17 14 8 7 2 5 — 27 26
1940–41 Gauliga Westfalen 17 11 8 6 3 3 — 28 20
1941–42 Gauliga Westfalen 16 12 5 8 5 0 — 26 20
1942–43 Gauliga Westfalen 17 16 3 1 4 1 4 5 28 23
1943–44 Gauliga Westfalen 13 15 2 2 4 3 — 19 20
1944–45 Gauliga Westfalen 0 0 — — — 0 0
1945–46 Landesliga Westfalen 9 3 — — — 9 3
1946–47 Landesliga Westfalen 11 1 — — 2 1 13 2
1947–48
Oberliga West
 6 1 — — — 6 1
1948–49 Oberliga West 4 0 — — — 4 0
Career total 265 199 87 56 35 19 47 35 434 309
  1. ^ Tschammer-Pokal (forerunner of today's DFB-Pokal)
  2. ^ Includes Ruhr / Western German championship (1926–1933), Westphalian Cup (1943), Westphalian / British zone championship (1947)

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year[2]
National team Year Apps Goals
Germany 1929 1 1
1930 1 0
1931 1 0
1932 0 0
1933 0 0
1934 7 1
1935 3 0
1936 6 1
1937 8 2
1938 4 1
1939 3 2
Total 34 8

Trivia

  • He and fellow Schalke star Ernst Kuzorra married each other's sisters, and thus became brothers-in-law.

References

  1. ^ "Fritz SZEPAN | 1932-1938 - PES Stats Database". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  2. ^
    RSSSF
    . Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Fritz Szepan".
  4. ISBN 978-3-7307-0204-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  5. ^ "Fritz Szepan » Club matches". worldfootball.net.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Germany captain
1934–1939 		Succeeded by

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