Biography

Helmut Rahn

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Overview

Born
August 16, 1929 · Essen, Germany
Died
August 14, 2003 · Essen, Germany
Nickname
- Der Boss

Mini bio

After finishing school, Rahn completed training as an electrician. From 1938 to 1946 he played for Altenessen 12. He started his football career in 1946 with the regional league club Oelde 1909, for which he scored 52 goals. He came to the "Rot-Weiß Essen" club in 1951 through the Sportfreunde Katernberg. In the same year, 1951, he was appointed to the national team by national coach Sepp Herberger. The right winger played a total of 40 international matches and scored 21 goals. He turned down an offer to move to the "Racing Club Buenos Aires" in 1952. With his club "Rot-Weiß Essen" he won the DFB Cup in 1953 and became German champion in 1955.

At the World Cup final in Bern on July 4, 1954, in which Sepp Herberger's team fell behind 2-0, Rahn scored the equalizer and the winning goal for a sensational victory after Max Morlock's goal. With Herbert Zimmermann's live radio report from Bern, the legendary words "Rahn should shoot from the background, Rahn shoots - goal, goal, goal... Germany is world champion" went around the world. Rahn not only became one of the first star players, but he also gave the young Federal Republic, which was still in the post-war sinful role, a new self-confidence. The event went down in history as the "Miracle of Bern".

After a guest appearance at 1. FC Köln and in the Dutch honorary division at SV Enschede, Rahn made a surprising comeback in 1963 in the newly founded German Bundesliga with "Meidericher SV", today's MSV Duisburg, with whom he was runner-up in the founding season. Rahn ended his career in 1965 due to a knee injury. He then withdrew from public life.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth

Family

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Trivia

Regarded as a daredevil and bonvivant, he was described as the sort of person who would be crazy enough to do exactly what nobody else dared to do. He was allegedly a person who would get noticed among hundreds of others, the life of the party with a loud voice.
The third of four brothers.
Sons, Uwe (born 1954) and Klaus.
Scored the second, as well as the third, match-winning goal for Germany during the 1954 Football World Cup final.
In his spare time, he enjoyed gardening.