Klaus Urbanczyk

Who is Klaus Urbanczyk?

Klaus Urbanczyk, nicknamed Banne, born 4 June 1940 in Halle, is a former East German football player and manager.

Urbanczyk began his football career at Turbine Halle in 1948. Beginning in 1960, he played for this team – in the meantime renamed Chemie Halle and later Hallescher FC Chemie – in the DDR-Oberliga. His first Oberliga match was against Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt on 20 March 1960, as a right midfielder. During his career, however, he made his home on the position of right defender. He appeared in 250 East German top flight matches.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Urbanczyk was held to be one of the best right defenders in the world, on account of his speed and his slide-tackling skills. He played for East Germany between 1961 and 1969.

In a survey among managers of the magazine "Deutsches Sportecho", Urbanczyk was voted the best right defender of the 1962–63 season. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, Urbanczyk's popularity rose further. He was one of the key figures of East Germany's team that reached the semi-final of the tournament. In the semi-final against the Czechoslovakia, Urbanczyk collided with his own goalkeeper Jürgen Heinsch and suffered a complicated knee injury, including torn cruciates. East Germany lost the semi-final, but won the bronze medal against Egypt. In the same year, Urbanczyk was won the East German Sportsperson of the Year award – the only team that a footballer was given an individual award. Urbanczyk also won the East German Footballer of the Year award in 1964.