Tales
of Defection: The Cold War’s Impact on the Game
The
end of the Great War in Europe ushered in another War between competing
ideologies. While this new War was not fought on the battlefield, a new
ideological War was being waged and Football was not immune to it.
For
over 40 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Citizens from the Eastern Bloc
form all walks of life and professions (which included many footballers) would
risk life, prison sentences and permanent disconnect from their families and
respective nations to obtain basic freedoms as well as professional
opportunities in the West befitting their talents.
There
are many tales of players spanning these decades that made these life and
career changing decisions. This includes some of the greatest players of the
game as well as relatively unknown ones.
The
first case of these defections started as early as 1949 and involved one of the
greatest players of the game, the Hungarian (as well as Czechoslovakian)
International László (Ladislao) Kubala. After the Full Communist
takeover of Hungary in 1949, he fled to Austria. From there he made his way to
Spain and joined Barcelona. After serving the one-year suspension (this would
turn out to be the customary suspension for the defectors), he excelled for his
new club and earned trophies, fame and fortune along the way. Spain under
General Franco would use his example as propaganda as well. Kubala became the
trailblazer for future defections. He was a visible example of what life could
be like in the West for those who were able to export their talent.
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 53, June 1993
(Ladislao
Kubala at Barcelona)
|
Less
than a decade later, the Hungarian Revolution in the Fall of 1956 would pave
the way for the second wave of defections.
This
would involve the greatest ever player to defect, Hungary’s Captain, the
‘Galloping Major’ Ferenc Puskás.
Hungary’s
Honved, which was the backbone of the Mighty Magyars’ National Team, had been
outside of the country in preparation for their upcoming Champions Cup Match in
Spain vs. Athletic Bilbao. Due to the political events, they delayed their
return. Eventually many returned home, but Puskas, along with Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor decided to remain in
the West, as did the Honved Manager Jenő
Kalmár. After their suspensions, Puskas joined the great Real
Madrid side of Di Stefano, while Kubala convinced Kocsis and Czibor to join him
at Barcelona.
 |
Photo
From: Placar, Issue 1302, January 2007
(Ferenc
Puskas)
|
 |
Photo
From: World Soccer, April 1999
(Sandor
Kocsis)
|
It
would be another decade when another prominent Hungarian International would
defect. Ferencváros’ Zoltán Varga fled while with the
Hungary Olympic squad at Guadalajara during the 1968 Mexico Olympics Games. He
had defected with the belief he was to be offered a contract with Belgium’s
Standard Liège. However, upon his arrival the deal was called off.
He subsequently played in West Germany with Hertha Berlin and Borussia
Dortmund, with a spell in between with Aberdeen and Ajax Amsterdam, while
serving a ban in West Germany for taking part in a bribery scandal.
 |
Photo
From: Fussball Magazin, Issue 6, September October 1977
(Zoltan
Varga)
|
Poland
had to contend with the defection of Polonia Bytom trio of Jan Banaś,
Jan Liberda and Norbert Pogrzeba in 1966 before a match vs. Sweden’s IFK Norrköping. Within a year Banaś had returned and was pardoned by the Polish
authorities, while Liberda and Pogrzeba had a spell in Dutch Football with AZ
Alkmaar and NAC Breda respectively.
The
frequency of defections increased in the 70s especially concerning former East
Germans enticed with not only the prospect of freedom but higher wages and
standards of the Bundesliga.
The
East German U-21 pair of goalkeeper Jürgen Pahl and Norbert Nachtweih
(both of Chemie Halle) took the opportunity to flee while on tour with the U-21
squad in Turkey in November 1976.
Pahl
stated that there were no political reasons for their act just the need to earn
better wages.
They
fled to Turkey and from there to West Germany where they joined Eintracht
Frankfurt (after having served the obligatory one-year suspension). Nachtweih
would go on to play for Bayern Munich and many consider that he would have been
capped by West Germany had he not already represented the East German U-21s.
 |
Photo
From: programs\1982.03.03. Tottenham Hotspur - Eintracht Frankfurt (Cup Winners
Cup)
(Jurgen
Pahl)
|
 |
Photo
From: Fussball Magazin, March April 1983
(Norbert
Nachtweih at Baywern Munich)
|
Hungary’s
Lajos Kü fled through Yugoslavia in January 1977 and found his way to Belgium’s
Club Brugge. He reached the Champions Cup Final with his new club vs. Liverpool
in 1978. Things took a turn to the farcical, when the match was broadcast in
Hungary. The Television commentator would pronounce his name with a French
accent to draw away the audience to any reference of Kü being Hungarian.
 |
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 29, May 1978
(Graeme
Souness and Lajos Ku, May 10, 1978, Champions Cup, Liverpool 1-Club Brugge 0)
|
East
Germany’s then Under-21 Manager Jörg Berger took advantage of a
match in Yugoslavia to flee and find his way to West Germany in 1979.
He
would go on to have a long managerial career in the Bundesliga, but was
threatened by the East German State Security, the Stasi. It is alleged that he
even survived an attempt to poison him.
Once
in an interview he brushed aside the pressures associated with Management. He
recounted his own escape through Yugoslavia with a false passport and said that
the Yugoslavian border agent had recognized him but still allowed him to pass.
Berger considered that to be real pressure not the stress of losing matches.
 |
Photo
From: World Soccer, December 1992
(Jorg
Berger)
|
The
East German Lutz Eigendorf used a friendly between Dinamo Berlin and West
Germany’s Kaiserslautern to make his way to the West. On March 20, 1979, after
the friendly while the squad was traveling back to the East, he fled at a stop
and took a taxi back to Kaiserslautern to join them. It has been suggested that
the Stasi took this defection the hardest as Dinamo Berlin were under their
control.
On
March 5th, 1983, Eigendorf was involved in a car accident and died
two days later on March 7th aged
26. Many were suspicious of the circumstances of the accident and accused the
Stasi of having staged it. In 2010 a
former East German spy confessed that he had been ordered by the Stasi to
murder Eigendorf but he had not done so.
Romanian
defector and Rapid Bucharest defender Dan Coe similarly died under suspicious
circumstances. He had been granted authorization by the Romanian Government to
travel to Belgium in 1980 (He had played at Antwerp in the early 70s).
From
Belgium he went to West Germany and sought political asylum and lived in Köln. On October 19, 1981, he
was found dead in his apartment. It was unclear whether he had committed
suicide or murdered, but many accused the Romanian State Security of the
latter. Shortly before his death, he had given an interview on Radio Free
Europe.
Other
Romanian defectors such as Viorel Năstase and Marcel Răducanu
(both from the Army Team Steaua Bucharest) and Alexandru Sătmăreanu were fortunate in avoiding the same fate.
Năstase escaped in the Fall of 1979 when Steaua were
involved in the Cup Winners Cup competition vs. Switzerland’s Young Boys Bern.
After his suspension he lined for Bundesliga’s TSV 1860 Munich and also had a
spell in Italy with Catanzaro.
Dinamo
Bucharest’s Alexandru Sătmăreanu defected to the West in
1980 and joined West Germany’s Stuttgart. He received a ten-year Prison
sentence for his action. In West Germany, he reverted to his original name:
Alexander Szamatari (since he was an ethnic Hungarian).
Marcel
Răducanu defected in the August of 1981, when the Romanian National team
played a Friendly vs. Borussia Dortmund. He would go on to serve Dortmund until
1988. Since Răducanu had the rank of Captain in the Romanian Army,
he was sentenced to six years in Prison in Absentia.
The
East German and Dinamo Dresden trio of Gerd Weber, Matthias Müller and Peter Kotte were not as
lucky. Stasi arrested them at the airport in January 1981 before a Dinamo
Dresden trip to Argentina for Friendly matches.
Weber
had been in contact with FC Köln
and made the plans. He was sentenced to a term of 7 years and 7 months. He was
released in 1989.
Kotte
and Müller were banned and dismissed from Dresden, but played
in the Lower Leagues.
 |
Photo
From: Mondial, Old Series, Issue 1, February 1977
(Dinamo Dresden squad, 1976/77, Matthias Muller
is the standing on the farthest left, Gerd Weber is standing (third from the
right), Peter Kotte is sitting (third from left)) |
This
did not deter the Dinamo Berlin duo of Falko Götz and Dirk Schlegel to escape
the East. Dinamo Berlin were due to play Partizan Belgrade on November 2, 1983
for the Champions Cup.
The
duo went to the American Embassy in Belgrade and sought asylum and made their
way to West Germany to join Bayer Leverkusen.
 |
Photo
From: Fussball Magazin, Issue 8, August 1986
(Dirk
Schlegel)
|
In
June 1982, Polish and Slask Wroclaw goalkeeper Jacek Jarecki was with the
National Team in preparations for the World Cup in Spain and had an outside
chance of being one of the reserve goalkeepers. He fled from the Team Hotel to
seek asylum in West Germany. He joined Fortuna Dusseldorf and later had a spell
at Fortuna Köln.
The
situation for Polish winger Cezary Tobollik was different. He fled while his
club Cracovia Krakow were in Graz, Austria in the Summer of 1983. From there he
joined West Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt. To avoid the usual one-year
suspension, Frankfurt paid his old club £6,500 cash as well as £25,000
of Football and Ice Hockey material.
There
were also many defections towards the end of the 80s just before the Berlin
Wall fell.
 |
Photo
From: Onze, Hors serie 29, 1986
(Cezary
Tobollik at RC Lens, 1986/87)
|
Jürgen Sparwasser, who scored East Germany’s winning goal
vs. their Western neighbors during the 1974 World Cup, fled in January 1988
while in Saarbrucken, West Germany for a Veterans Tournament. He walked into a
police Station and sought asylum.
Czechoslovakia
and Slavia Prague duo of Lubos Kubik and Ivo Knoflicek defected while on tour
with their club in West Germany in the summer of 1988.
By
the start of the following season, Kubik was at Fiorentina, while Knoflicek was
at St. Pauli in West Germany.
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 16, May 1990
(Lubos
Kubik at Fiorentina, 1989/90)
|
On
November 12, 1988 at Milan, Poland played against an Italian League XI in a
Charity match. From there Poland’s Andrzej Rudy fled to West Germany to seek
asylum and joined FC Köln.
On
December 29, 1988, Romania and Steaua Bucharest’s talented Libero Miodrag
Beloidedici (who was an ethnic Serb) fled his homeland for Yugoslavia and
joined Red Star of Belgrade.
When
he won the Champions Cup in 1991 with Red Star, he became the first ever player
to win the trophy with two different clubs (having previously won with Steaua
Bucharest in 1986). Given the fact that he was in the Romanian Army, he
received a ten year Prison sentence in abstentia.
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 28, May 1991
(Miodrag
Beloidedici at Red Star Belgrade)
|
In
July 1989, less than four months before the Fall of the Wall, the East German
Axel Kruse of Hansa Rostock defected in Denmark where his club was playing an
Intertoto match vs. BK Copenhagen. He found his way to West Berlin and joined
Hertha.
 |
Photo
From: Fussball Magazin, Issue 4, April 1990
(Axel
Kruse on top of THE WALL)
|
Similarly,
Rapid Bucharest’s little-known trio of Lucian Ilie, Gabriel Ciopolnea and
Alexandru Aprodu defected while in Sweden, where Rapid was playing an Intertoto
Cup match.
The
Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the
Cold War and Communism. As the months passed, new regimes and political changes
and openness paved the way for the pardon and re-integration of those who had
fled. It also started an era of massive transfers of Eastern European players
to the richer Western Leagues. It was not the fact that they were free to do
so, but in many cases the Eastern clubs were forced to sell to survive in a new
Political system and climate, as they could no longer rely on the state to fund
and support them.
In
an age where bigger Western clubs are poaching talented adolescents from
Eastern Europe and Eastern European Clubs themselves are lining up Brazilians,
this reality during the Cold War years would seem like an alternate universe
from a science fiction novel.
It
would seem unimaginable to restrain and imprison (Literally and Figuratively)
the talented from better opportunities in the name of ideology, but such was
the world of many generations of Footballers.
Note:
1-
Despite the Fall of Communism, Eastern Europe’s poorest Nation Albania was
still steeped in Socialism and was the slowest to adapt to these changes. As a
result, up to the early 1990s, there would be scattered reports of players
going missing and seeking asylum while on tours.
Albanian
International Rudi Vata is such a case. He sought political asylum in France in
1991 while with the Albanian U-21 squad. He joined Le Mans and eventually
joined Celtic Glasgow.
2-For
more in depth Analysis of Polish Football Defectors, please read the excellent
article by Mr Christopher Lash ( @rightbankwarsaw)
http://rightbankwarsaw.com/2014/01/06/across-the-curtain-polish-football-defectors-and-the-cold-war/
2-For
more in depth Analysis of East German Football Defectors, please read the excellent
article by Mr Cristian Nyari ( @Cnyari)
