Hans-Jürgen “Dixie” Dorner
The “Beckenbauer of the East” has died
Hans-Jürgen “Dixie” Dörner was 70 years old.
© imago/STAR MEDIA
The football world mourns the loss of Hans-Jürgen “Dixie” Dörner. The star of Dynamo Dresden and the GDR selection died at the age of 70.
An icon of East German football is dead: Hans-Jürgen Dörner, known as “Dixie”, died at the age of 70. This is reported, among other things, by “sports picture”. The former Dynamo Dresden defender died on Tuesday night (January 18). Dörner had been suffering from a serious illness for many years and was operated on in the summer of 2021 due to “blood vessel problems”.
Dörner’s career began in the mid-1960s at BSG Energie Görlitz before lacing up his football boots for Dynamo Dresden for almost 20 years, where he rose to become a club icon. He played almost 400 league games there, became champion five times and won the cup four times. Dörner made exactly 100 appearances for the East German national team and won the gold medal in 1976 with the Olympic selection. He was nicknamed the “Beckenbauer of the East” for his qualities as a defender.
Also successful as a trainer
He began as a coach in 1986 in the youth division of Dynamo Dresden, and later coached Werder Bremen and VfB Leipzig, among others. He held his last station as a trainer from 2013 to 2017 at SG Unit Dresden-Mitte.