11 Facts About Fritz Walter

1.

Friedrich "Fritz" Walter was a German footballer who spent his entire senior career at 1.

2.

Fritz Walter usually played as an attacking midfielder or inside forward.

3.

Fritz Walter debuted with the Germany national team in 1940 under Sepp Herberger, and scored a hat-trick against Romania.

4.

Fritz Walter was drafted into the armed forces in 1942 the end of the war found 24-year-old Fritz Walter in a Prisoner of War camp in Maramures in which he played with Hungarian and Slovakian guards.

5.

One of the Hungarian prison guards had seen Walter playing for Germany, and told them that Fritz was not German but from the Saar Protectorate.

6.

Fritz Walter was captain of the West German team that won their first World Cup in 1954, beating Hungary.

7.

In 1956, after the crackdown by the Soviets of the Hungarian Uprising, the Hungarian football team were caught away from home, and for two years, Fritz Walter managed their games and provided the financial backing and in small measure, paid them back for having saved him from deportation to the Soviet Union.

8.

Fritz Walter received his last cap during the semi-final against Sweden in the 1958 World Cup, suffering an injury which ended his international career, and he retired from football in 1959.

9.

Fritz Walter was named an honorary captain of the German football squad in 1958.

10.

Fritz Walter died in Enkenbach-Alsenborn on 17 June 2002, aged 81.

11.

On 6 October 1956, Fritz Walter scored a spectacular goal in Leipzig in front of 100,000 East Germans during a friendly against Wismut Aue, when he hit the ball back-heel while diving forward.