Place of birth Cologne, Germany 1951–1952 1. FC Koln Position Goalkeeper 1946–1951 Preusen Dellbruck Height 1.77 m | Years Team Role Football player Playing position Name Fritz Herkenrath | |
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Date of birth (1928-09-09) 9 September 1928 (age 87) | ||
Friedrich "Fritz" Herkenrath (9 September 1928 in Cologne – 18 April 2016) was a former football goalkeeper for West Germany at the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He earned 21 caps between 1954 and 1958.
He took his club team Rot-Weiss Essen to the peak of its history and won a national championship in 1955. The following season, Rot-Weiss Essen became the first German side to qualify for the European Cup.
Initially, Herkenrath played handball. He started out as a right winger and only later became a goalkeeper. Soon after World War II, Herkenrath switched from handball to football. Herkenrath began studying at the German Sport University Cologne where he first encountered Sepp Herberger, who was a tutor there. Playing for 1. FC Köln in the early 1950s, Herkenrath was mostly the second goalkeeper behind the Dutchman Frans de Munck. He joined Rot-Weiß Essen in 1952 and soon rose to prominence playing for Essen. Herkenrath became known as the "flying schoolmaster" due to his main occupation as a teacher.
He retired in 1962 after 336 games in the Oberliga West and became a professor at the college of education in Aachen. He died on April 18, 2016 at the age of 87.