Former East Germany football great Eberhard Vogel has died at age 83

FILE PHOTO - Former East German national soccer team player Eberhard Vogel, holds the original ball from the 1972 Olympic qualifier on the grounds of the Ernst Abbe Sports Field in Jena. (is associated with: «Former East Germany football great Eberhard Vogel has died at age 83») Bodo Schackow/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa Former East Germany football great Eberhard Vogel died on Tuesday at age 83 after a long illness, his family announced on Wednesday. Vogel was a left winger who interpreted the position in a new way which earned him respect at home and abroad. He played an East German top flight record 440 matches, scoring 188 goals in the Oberliga for Karl-Marx-Stadt and Carl Zeiss Jena. He won one league title with Karl-Marx-Stadt, three East German Cups with Jena, with which he also reached the 1981 European Cup Winners' Cup final. Vogel scored 25 goals in 74 East Germany caps and 10 goals in 24 matches for the Olympic team, winning bronze medals in 1964 and 1972. He was also part of the East German squad at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. “He was a gifted striker who could have played for any world-class team. The way he interpreted the left-wing position would have been worthy of training films,” his former team-mate and later coach Hans Meyer once told dpa. Vogel later worked as a coach, winning the under-19 Euros in 1986, coming third at the U20 World Cup a year later and second at the U16 Euros in 1989. After German reunification in 1990 he coached clubs including Hanover, Jena and Magdeburg, plus the national team of Togo.