Dynamo Dresden mourns the loss of its club icon Hans-Jürgen “Dixie” Dörner. The record player and honorary captain of the second division soccer team died on Wednesday night after a long and serious illness at the age of 70. Dynamo announced this on its website.
“Dear ‘Dixie’, we will miss you forever and yet you will always be with us,” wrote the club: “Rest in peace!” “It’s incomprehensible, shocking and very, very sad,” said Dynamo President Holger Scholze: “His death plunges our sports community into deep sorrow.” In Dörner, “not only did the greatest player in the club’s history leave us,” said Scholze, “we also lost a person who had conquered all of our hearts.” For more than five decades, Dörner has “worried in an impressive and outstanding way on and off the pitch for the colors of our city and our association”.
Dörner made 558 appearances for Dresden in all competitions between 1969 and 1986, scoring 101 goals. The 100-time player from the former GDR had recently been involved as a member of the supervisory board for his club. In October 2019 he was inducted into the “Hall of Fame” of the German Football Museum. Dynamo wants to request a minute’s silence for the second division away game next Sunday (1.30 p.m.) at Hannover 96. In addition, the team should play with black ribbons as a sign of sympathy.