Reinhard Häfner
Encyclopedia
Reinhard Häfner was a German footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who now works as a football (soccer) coach.

Häfner played children's and youth football for his hometown club BSG Motor Sonneberg. As a junior player he was assigned to FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt
FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt is a German association football club based in Erfurt, Thuringia.-Foundation to World War II:The club has roots that go back to a cricket club founded in 1895. As they broadened their interests they came to be called Sport Club Erfurt...

before joining Dynamo Dresden
Dynamo Dresden
SG Dynamo Dresden are a German association football club, based in Dresden, Saxony. They were founded in 1950, as a club affiliated with the East German police, and became one of the most popular and successful clubs in East German football, winning eight league titles...

in 1971. He stayed with the Dresden club until his retirement as a player in 1988 having played in 366 East German first division DDR-Oberliga
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the elite level of football competition in the DDR , being roughly equivalent to the Oberliga or Bundesliga in West Germany.-Overview:Following World...

 matches, scoring 49 goals. He is second to Hans-Jürgen Dörner
Hans-Jürgen Dörner
Hans-Jürgen „Dixie“ Dörner is a former German football player and who now coaches. He distinguished himself during his career by being named East Germany's player of the year three times - the only East German player to do this besides goalkeeper Jürgen Croy.Dörner's playing career began in 1960...

 in matches played for Dynamo. Häfner was part of four DDR championship and FDGB Pokal
FDGB Pokal
The FDGB-Pokal was an elimination football tournament held annually in the former East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football after the DDR-Oberliga championship...

 (East German Cup) winning teams there.

Between 1971 and 1984 he was capped 58 times for the East Germany national football team
East Germany national football team
The East Germany national football team was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of East Germany, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland and West Germany....

, scoring 5 goals, and was part of the gold medal winning squad at the 1976 Summer Olympics
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...

 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

In April 1990, two years after his retirement as a player, Häfner became head coach of Dynamo Dresden, replacing Eduard Geyer
Eduard Geyer
Eduard Geyer is a German football manager and former player. He has had a long and varied career, particularly notable for being the last manager of the East German national team. He has recently been sacked from his second spell as manager of Dynamo Dresden.-Playing career:Geyer was born in...

. Weeks later Dynamo claimed its eighth championship and seventh cup. The following season, despite the sale of star players Ulf Kirsten and Matthias Sammer
Matthias Sammer
Matthias Sammer is a retired German football player and coach who is now working as technical director of the DFB . He played as a midfielder, and later in his career as a sweeper....

, Häfner guided the Dresden team to a second place finish in the final DDR-Oberliga season before the merger of the football competitions of East and West Germany following the reunification of the country
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, qualifying the club for the first division Bundesliga. Despite this success he was dismissed in June 1991. He moved on to coach second division club Chemnitzer FC
Chemnitzer FC
Chemnitzer FC is a German association football club based in Chemnitz, Saxony.The roots of the club go back to its establishment as Chemnitzer BC 1933 in 1933 after the collapse of former Chemnitzer BC 1899....

 from 1993 to 1996.

Häfner joined SV Grün-Weiß Langeneichstädt (Kreisliga Merseburg/Querfurt, Sachsen-Anhalt) in the post-season of 2006-07.

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