The football East mourns the loss of its best striker. Joachim Streich died on Saturday night shortly after his 71st birthday, as his wife Marita confirmed to the German Press Agency on Saturday. Previously they had Ostsee-Zeitungthe Magdeburg People’s Voice and the MDR reports. It is the second major loss for East German football within a few months after Hans-Jürgen Dörner died in January.
“We had hoped to the last. He was seriously ill for a long time. In the past few weeks things have been up and down,” said Marita Streich. The 102-time GDR player suffered from myelodysplastic syndrome, which in the worst case can lead to blood cancer. Streich has been in treatment for the past few weeks for advanced anemia and had to postpone a stem cell transplant due to pneumonia.
Streich was called the “Gerd Müller of the East”.
The striker scored 55 times in his 102 games in the DDR jersey. In addition, there are 229 goals in 378 games in the Oberliga – records for eternity. In 1967, at the age of 16, he moved from his youth club Aufbau Wismar to FC Hansa Rostock.
He experienced his most successful time at 1. FC Magdeburg from 1975 to 1985. “Strich”, as he was known at the time, was top scorer in the GDR Oberliga four times and won the FDGB Cup three times with FCM. Because of his slyness, Streich was often referred to as the “Gerd Müller of the East” and compared to the 1974 World Champion.
Despite these impressive numbers, Streich was often criticized throughout his career. “The then FuWoEditor-in-Chief Klaus Schlegel often singled me out and criticized me for what he saw as poor mileage and playing style. Jürgen Croy always wanted to build me up morally afterwards. So I said to him: ‘Jürgen, you don’t have to raise me up. I know that I’m the best here,” Streich told dpa shortly before his 70th birthday.