SCORING IN THE FINAL: World Cup Heroes # 2

In this second installment of heroes who have scored in the World Cup Final, comes cards from the underrated German BERGMANN FUSSBALL series.

 

The heart of these early Bundesliga sets is the nucleus of German and Bayern Munich stars. The current German professional league only began in 1963. One of the first card sets was the 1965-66 Bergmann Fussball series.

 

The cards are on heavier stock and sized very close to modern standard baseball cards.

 

The making of a dynasty - the 1965 Bergmann Bayern Munich Team card.

 

The set contains mostly player portrait pictures with a few posed action shot. Also included are some excellent team photos (see above). The set marks the cardboard debut of Germany's finest generation in Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier (Bayern) and Berti Vogts (Borussia Munchengladbach).

 

Another Bayern youngster that would go on to stardom was "Der Bomber" GERD MULLER.

Gerd Muller makes his card debut in the 1965 Bergmann.

 

Muller would set the world on fire by becoming the top scorer at the Mexico 1970 World Cup - with 10 goals.

 

 

He would amass 68 goals in just 62 appearences for Germany.

 

 

He broke all records in European and club scoring with 487 tallies in 555 top division matches.

 

He scored the winning goal for Germany in the 1974 World Cup Final.

 

 

1974 World Cup Star.

 

Here are some high lights of Der Bomber - complete with "um-pah-pah" music.

 

The 1970 European Footballer of the Year held nearly every scoring record in the World Cup and European Club play until the Brazilian Ronaldo and the Argentine Lionel Messi's recent successes.

 

I was able to pick up 4 of these Bergmann cards, all featuring Bayern Munich, for a very small price.

 

Notes: Last week's entry - PELE' - and this week's candidate - GERD MULLER, both finished their careers in America. Pele with the New York Cosmos, and Muller with the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. Both clubs currently compete in the USA's 2nd professional division - North American Soccer League.

I Like CHIX and World Cup Autographs

When I talk to people about some of the cards sets I collect, I sometimes (erroneously) assume that they are familiar with these soccer collectables.

So, maybe there is educational value on these here pages.

Even the beginners know that Panini stickers have albums to put the sets into. But they are far from the only ones, as card albums go back to at least the 1920's for soccer cards. 

The fact that fewer and fewer card makers have albums for their cards is a bit disheartening.   Which brings me to a manufacturers from the 1950's and 1960's that had wonderful cards and some colorful albums to match. In their heyday the CHIX Confectionary Limited sold candy with their soccer cards.

Some of the colored renditions of star player truly have held their own even by todays glitzy, memorabilia infested card world. 

The 1955 CHIX - Stan Matthews

The above card was meant to be adhered into the aforementioned album. Not long after the last of the cigarette card era, most examples still came in the size of tobacco issues.

But things were changing by the 1950'sand cards were almost the product that sold the item.  In this case, the cards sold the candy and the samples became more colorful and elaborate.  By the 1960's most soccer cards were full color and larger.

I recently landed this 1960 CHIX STAN MATTHEWS for the collection.

The double photo fronts have an outstanding portrait shot and a nice posed action photo to match.

The card backs are black and white but score a triple by adding a cartoon caricature of the player.  So more "Stan art" goes into my collection.

1960 CHIX - Stan Matthews

There are some CHIX issues that are very short printed and highly desired for their magnificent painted portraits. I will be looking for more Chix examples for my type collection.

WORLD CUP SIGNATURES

A fellow collector - Alan, was kind enough to send me a pair of BERGMANN cards. They both were signed by players from West Germany's 1974 World Champions.

Hubert "Berti" Vogts was a tenacious defender for Borussia Munchengladbach. He helped his club to 5 League titles in the 1970's and part of the dynasty for Germany's 1972 Euros and 1974 World Cup sweep. He would later manage his own National Team to the 1996 Euro title. 

"Der Terrier"had a reputation that made Vogts one tough defender.

Josep "Sepp" Maier was the Bayern Munich goalkeeper and also key to the 1972-74 German successes. At Bayern he not only won 5 League titles but 3 European Champions League trophies.

Sepp Maier -  3 time German player of the year.

Alan probably has one of the finest vintage pre-war collection in North America. I appreciate his additions to my collection.