Voting: The defense of the Legends-Elf from Alemannia Aachen

InteraktivAachenStephan Straub fishes the ball out of the corner, throws the ball into Reinhold Münzenberg's feet, pass to Michel Pfeiffer, who skilfully stages Stephan Lämmermann... What a fictitious attack with a famous name! We're looking for Alemannia's legendary eleven, and you have a choice: vote now!

We are looking for the best of the best in Alemannia and present players from different decades. This part is about the defensive line. Joaquín Montañés has played the most games for Alemannia. Willi Landgraf was always accompanied by a long "Williiiiiii" on the right side and is a record player in the 2nd Bundesliga. Reinhold Munzenberg, "the Iron One", was Aachen's first international. Is that enough for a place in the Legends-Elf?

Whether good positional play, uncompromising tackles or a well-considered opening of the game: a good defender has many characteristics. Over the years, the Alemannia had a wide variety of defense types to offer, we have selected a few. They decide which of them gets a place in the Legends XI.

Stephen Blank

“It was a great feeling to score the goal. The ball was incredibly good on the foot and then had a very strange trajectory.” Stefan Blank sounds almost modest when he describes his goal to make it 1-0 in the DFB Cup quarter-finals. After all, the opponent was Bayern Munich, and the goalkeeper at the time was Oliver Kahn. The left-back caught him on the wrong foot in the 33rd minute on February 4, 2004 with a powerful shot from 25 meters and a "strange trajectory".

An exuberant dance of jubilation followed, a few days later the election for "Goal of the Month" - and a place in the black and yellow history books. The native of Gelsenkirchen had not laced his shoes for Alemannia for that long.

In 2003 he moved from FC St. Pauli to the Kaiserstadt, where he left a year and a half and 43 competitive appearances (10 goals) later to join the first division club Kaiserslautern. After two Bundesliga seasons, he returned to the Ruhr area, where he had started his professional career with SG Wattenscheid 09. He made a total of seven more appearances for MSV Duisburg – then the active career of the dangerous 1.93 meter full-back was over.

He then stayed with football. Until 2016 he worked for various amateur clubs as a coach (SG Wattenscheid 09 U19, SG Wattenscheid 09, Hallescher FC II, FC Kray) and sports director (SpVgg Erkenschwick). After a desolate start to the season with FC Kray in the Niederrhein Oberliga, he was released after just three matchdays. It is not known whether he has only been pursuing his second passion, golf, since then. (kit)

Wilfried "Willi" Landgrave

There is only one person who, when asked whether he has ever done step aerobics training, replies "Young, I come from Bottrop - we'll kill you there if you do it in the gym!": Willi Landgraf, who in 1968 in Mühlheim an der Ruhr was born and knows the 2nd Bundesliga like no other.

The “battle pig” came to Tivoli in the summer of 1999 via Rot-Weiss Essen, FC Homburg and FC Gütersloh and quickly became a crowd favourite. He worked on the right side of defense and drove his opponents to despair with his irrepressible will, his inexhaustible commitment and the unconditional will to win - always accompanied by long-drawn-out "Williiiiiii" calls from the spectators.

The typical Ruhrpott kicker was never granted a Bundesliga game, but with 508 appearances he is the record player in the 2nd Bundesliga. He was also in the DFB Cup final against Werder Bremen with Alemannia in 2004 after the Aachen team had previously knocked out Bundesliga clubs Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach, played with the Tivoli kickers in the UEFA Cup and at the end of his career managed the long-awaited promotion with the Kaiserstadters in the Bundesliga.

He then switched to the amateurs at FC Schalke 04, had to fill up the bank with the pros from January 2007, at the old age of 38, and ended his career at VfB Bottrop.

Joaquin "Jo" Montañes

Born in Spain, grew up in Eschweiler and spent the entire active football career with Alemannia: That is Joaquín Montañés.

Jo Montañés was born in Talavera de la Reina in the Spanish province of Toledo in 1953. His parents came to Germany while he was still a child and settled in Eschweiler. There the defender laced up his shoes for Eschweiler SG and Stolberger SV in his youth. In 1972 he moved to the then regional league team Alemannia Aachen – and from then on he would not appear for any other club.

Montañés played a total of 542 games in the jersey of the Colorado potato beetle, a club record. No player completed more games for the black and yellow. He delivered 63 of his Alemannia games in the regional league, all others in the 2nd Bundesliga. Until Willi Landgraf became "Mister 2nd League", the Spaniard held the record in Germany's lower house of football - by the way, he still leads after minutes of use.

Today, professional footballers change employers more frequently than fans can count, while Montañés remained loyal to Alemannia for 17 years until the end of his playing career in 1989. Once there was a serious interest from Betis Sevilla, the defender even completed a trial session in his home country. But the transfer failed. The Aachen manager at the time, Bert Schütt, repeatedly demanded higher transfer fees until the Spaniards gave up annoyed.

After the end of his career, he played in the traditional Alemannia team until 2016 and also passed on his knowledge as a coach: Borussia Freialdenhoven (1989 - 1993), FSV Geilenkirchen-Hünshoven (1993 - 1997) and SuS Herzogenrath (1997 - 2000) were the names of the stations. The last shorter coaching commitments were at Kohlscheider BC and FSV Setterich.

Reinhold "The Iron" Munzenberg

Hardly any name represents the virtues of Alemannia as much as Reinhold Munzenberg. "Der Eiserne" shaped the early years of the black and yellow and was Aachen's first of only three German internationals to date.

Münzenberg was born in 1909 in the Walheim district of Aachen and came to the youth department of Alemannia in 1922 via the Aachener Spielverein. Four years later he was promoted to the first team. From 1939 he played for VfL Neckarau for a year, after a short comeback at Alemannia he went to Werder Bremen in 1941 as a guest player. From January 1943 he played for the Hamburg Air Force Sports Club before returning to Alemannia in October 1944. There he played until the end of the 1950/51 season.

Reinhold Münzenberg is not only a well-known figure at Tivoli, between 1930 and 1939 he played 41 international matches for the German national team. Eight times he even led the DFB team onto the field as captain. At the 1934 World Cup in Italy, he was only used once, but in the important game for third place, which was won 3-2 against Austria.

The 8-0 victory of the Germans over Denmark on May 16, 1937 in Breslau is still considered one of the best games the German national team has ever played. In the starting eleven of the so-called Breslau-Elf: Alemannia veteran Munzenberg.

Jupp Derwall, once active at Alemannia and national coach from 1978 to 1984, said of Reinhold Münzenberg: "Reinhold was a sensation for us young players at the time, a great role model from the runners-up with Paul Janes and Ludwig Goldbrunner. All unimaginable sizes in Herberger's time."

But Munzenberg, who was made an honorary member on April 23, 1948, was not only active on the pitch for the Black and Yellows. From 1974 to 1976 he was the association's president. His nephew Egon Münzenberg then took over the office.

Werner Nievelstein

"If the Nievelstein could then dash to the goal, the Prokop roars: 'Futt, you bess a self-goal specialist!'" says Alemannia's club anthem of the 3 Atomchen. No wonder, since Werner Nievelstein's career with the Black and Yellows started very unluckily with an own goal. The defender, who was born in 1941, moved from SuS Herzogenrath to Tivoli in 1958. On October 16, 1960 he finally made his debut in the first team. Less than four minutes had been played against Meidericher SV when Nievelstein had already scored his first goal as a professional. Unfortunately, the ball ended up in his own box, and the legend of the "self-goal specialist" was born.

But he can definitely live with that, because Nievelstein was one of the defining figures of the most successful years of the Black and Yellows: In 1965 he was with Alemannia in the DFB Cup final in Hanover, which they lost 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund. In 1964 and 1967 he became champion of the Regionalliga West with Aachen, rose to the Bundesliga in 1967 and surprisingly became German runner-up in 1969 with the Black and Yellows.

Overall, Nievelstein ran on 1960-1970 in 225 league games in the upper, regional and federal leagues for the Alemannia. He then ended his career at his hometown club SuS Herzogenrath.

Moses Sichone

When defenders start dribbling, dance in their own penalty area or reach into their bag of tricks near their own goal, the fans often hold their breath. If it works, the applause and astonishment is great, if it goes wrong, the anger is all the greater.

Moses Sichone regularly caused the black and yellow supporters to gasp, always striving to show that central defenders can do more than just slide tackle and deflect the ball - often with success, but sometimes not. The Zambian defender played for Alemannia between 2004 and 2007 and was a regular in the 2005/06 promotion team. Aachen's return to the top flight after 36 years was Sichone's third promotion to the premier league, having previously achieved the feat twice with 1. FC Köln (2000 and 2003).

The national team from Zambia (44 appearances between 1998 and 2006) moved to the imperial city from that same cathedral city in 2004, although Alemannia played a league below Cologne. However, the Tivoli offered the opportunity to play internationally. In the 2004/05 season, Sichone reached the third round of the UEFA Cup with his teammates under coach Dieter Hecking. The victories in Cologne against Lille (1:0) and in Athens against AEK (2:0) remain unforgotten.

After his time at Alemannia, Sichone was still active in Offenbach, Aalen, Pahphos (Cyprus), Jena and Bergheim. But contact with Krefelder Strasse never completely broke off. From 2013 to 2017, Sichone held various coaching positions at Alemannia and coached in the youth sector: he stood on the sidelines for the U17s and the second team.

After his commitment at Tivoli, he remained loyal to the region and was coach at FC Rhenania Lohn in Eschweiler from 2018 to 2019.

Frank Smith

Defenders don't usually score many goals, after all, their main job is to prevent them. For Frank Schmidt that was no reason not to score. In 102 games for Alemannia, the 1.90 meter tall defender scored 19 goals, six of them in the 2001/02 season in the 2nd Bundesliga.

In Aachen he had already been hired for the 1998/99 season. Coach Werner Fuchs brought the Heidenheim-born defender, who started his career in the Bundesliga squad of 1. FC Nürnberg in the early 1990s, from Vienna to the Tivoli. And right in his debut season on Krefelder Strasse, he managed to get promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga with his new club.

After leaving Alemannia after five years, he returned home via the SV Waldhof Mannheim station. He ended his playing career at what is now 1. FC Heidenheim after 112 appearances at the end of the 2006/07 season.

Shortly after hanging up his football boots, he initially took over the coaching position at Heidenheim on an interim basis. And with him came success: At the end of the season, they were promoted to the fourth-rate regional league, in 2009 they went up to the 3rd league, and since the summer of 2014 the Heidenheimers have been playing in the 2nd Bundesliga under Frank Schmidt. With more than twelve years in office, Schmidt is the longest-serving coach in the lower house of football.

Henry Heeren

Henri Heeren came to Alemannia in the Regionalliga West/Südwest in the summer of 1997 and quickly became one of the crowd's favourites. The right side of defense was his natural environment, the Dutchman worked his opponents until they dropped.

But Heeren was not only a tough duel, he also made a name for himself as a marksman. In his 102 games for Alemannia he only scored ten goals, but when he scored it was spectacular. Probably his best goal came on matchday 26 of the 1999/2000 season in the 2nd Bundesliga. Aachen started in Nuremberg and was already 0:2 behind after 25 minutes. But Henri Heeren should make the game exciting again. The defender scored the goal with a free-kick hammer. Ultimately, the Alemannia lost the game 1:3 and it was quickly forgotten. But the Heeren hit is for eternity.

In the summer of 2003, the native of Heerlen, who learned to play football from Roda Kerkrade, left Tivoli for Saarbrücken. There, like in 1999 with Alemannia, he was able to celebrate promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. He ended his career in 2009 at Fortuna Düsseldorf. There he held the position of team captain in the 2007/08 season.

poll

These were our candidates. It's your turn now. Which of these Alemannia heroes must definitely get a place in the Legends Elf? Even if it's difficult, you can only vote for one player.

Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, 2020. From all of the votes cast, we create Alemannia's Legends-Elf, which line up in a 4-3-3 and are coached by a coaching duo.

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Here are the other votes:

Note: The information on the playing times, appearances and goals were taken from Oche Hoppaz.