Bundesliga: Werder record player Dieter Burdenski dies

Werder Bremen’s record player Dieter Burdenski is dead. As the Bundesliga club announced on its homepage with reference to the family, the former goalkeeper died on Wednesday at the age of 73 in his hometown on the Weser. “The news of his death shocks us and makes us deeply sad,” the chairman of the supervisory board, Hubertus Hess-Grunewald, was quoted as saying in the club’s announcement. “Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”

With 444 Bundesliga games and a total of 582 appearances, “Budde” is the Green-Whites’ record player. Although he always fought against relegation with SV Werder in the first few years, he celebrated his international debut in Montevideo in 1977 with a 2-0 win against Uruguay. For many years, Bremen’s honorary captain was considered the best German goalkeeper behind the outstanding Sepp Maier.

German champion at the end of his career

In 1978 Burdenski took part in the World Cup in Argentina with the DFB team. In total, the Werder keeper made twelve appearances for the national team. Even after relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga in 1980, Burdenski remained loyal to Werder. By winning the German championship, he brought his professional career to a fitting end in the 1987/88 season. From 1997 to 2005, the native of Bremen worked as a goalkeeping coach for the club, where he was active for 16 years.

After last Saturday, Dieter Burdenski celebrated with the Bremen Cup winners from 1999 in the Weserstadion. Klaus Filbry, CEO of SV Werder Bremen, said: “Budde was an important pioneer of the success of our club in the various positions he held at Werder over 50 years. We are unspeakably sad as we are losing not only a great Werder player in “Budde”, but also a great person.”