He was the "Beckenbauer of the East", even if Hans-Jürgen Dörner did not like to read these things about himself. But the comparison with Franz Beckenbauer came to mind. "Dixie" Dörner was also way ahead of his time with his modern interpretation of the free, and was also regarded as the shining light of football in the former GDR.

Arguably the most talented player the GDR has produced died Wednesday night six days before his 71st birthday after a long and serious illness. "Dear 'Dixie', we will miss you forever and yet you will always be with us", second division club Dynamo Dresden wrote on their website on the club icon: "Rest in peace!"

Dresden, the east, indeed the whole of Germany in football mourns the loss of one of its greatest players. "The news shocked me, I am deeply impressed and amazed," Ede Geyer, Dörner's longtime partner, told "SID". many footballers. "

Dynamo Dresden "in deep mourning"

100 international matches, five league titles, five cups won, Olympic gold in 1976, three times player of the year in the GDR: Dörner's playing career was crowned with successes. Only one thing bothered him to death: due to jaundice, he missed the 1974 World Cup and the resounding 1-0 victory in Hamburg over his older brother Germany.

Dynamo loses its record of captain of honor, captain of honor, member of the supervisory board and fervent fan Dörner has always been a yellow and black with heart and soul. "As for football, I have always been satisfied in Dresden", he once said, "I never wanted to change."

His death plunged the club into "deep mourning," said Dynamo chairman Holger Scholze. To Dörner "not only did the greatest player in the history of the club leave us", said Scholze, "we also lost a person who won all our hearts". For more than five decades, Dörner "is impressively and exceptionally concerned on and off the pitch for the colors of our city and our association."

Sammer on Dörner: "You were way ahead of your time"

As a thank you, the club issued a commemorative stamp worth 70 cents appropriately in 2021 on the occasion of Dörner's 70th birthday. Dörner has made 558 appearances for Dresden in all competitions, scoring 101 goals. In October 2019, Dörner, whose coaching career never began after an unfortunate start at Werder Bremen ("We Osttrainers didn't have a great reputation"), was inducted into the "Hall of Fame" of the German Football Museum.

For Matthias Sammer, who later had an international career himself, Dörner was a model as a teenager. "You were way ahead of your time," said Sammer on Dörner's last birthday. "You would have liked Pep Guardiola."

Dörner didn't like talking about his person so much. "I'm not the Messiah," he once said to him. Born in Görlitz, he was quite reserved, "but when the song 'Mendocino' was played," revealed Geyer, "then he could even get out of himself."

The question about the origin of his nickname "Dixie", which he has carried since childhood, will probably go unanswered after his death. "I don't know by whom and why", Dörner once said: "It has nothing to do with the old cars or the Dixieland Festival."

Hermann Winkler, president of the North East German Football Association, was "appalled and amazed". Dörner's death means "a turning point for football in East Germany and Saxony. People here admired him, he was a figure I could identify with, inspired the masses as a player and touched hearts as a person".

Dynamo wants to ask for a minute of silence for next Sunday's second division away match at Hannover 96. Furthermore, the team should play with the black ribbons as a sign of sympathy.