Career
A playmaking midfielder, Overath started playing football at SSV Siegburg, but spent the majority of his career at 1. FC Köln, appearing 765 times between 1962 and 1977 and scoring 287 goals. He won the Bundesliga with 1. FC Köln in 1964 and the German Cup in 1968. In total he won 81 caps for the national side between 1963 and 1974, scoring 17 goals. As well as the World Cup victory in 1974, he was at the heart of the West German midfield when they reached the final in 1966 and achieved third place in 1970. Overath scored the only goal in the latter match, with many foreign journalists voting him Germany's best player in Mexico.
Overath is one of only two players (alongside his teammate Franz Beckenbauer) with World Cup medals for first, second and third place. He would have made more appearances for West Germany but for the outstanding play of Günter Netzer that made him a second choice for a brief period including the UEFA Euro 1972 victory. But he soon regained his place ahead of Netzer, who said himself that Overath "was born to play for Germany".
In 2004 he was elected President of 1. FC Köln, but resigned on 13 November 2011.
Read more about this topic: Wolfgang Overath
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
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“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
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