What Andreas Köpke Changed for German Goalkeepers
Andreas Köpke ranks No. 43 on this list because he changed what Germany could expect from a goalkeeper who had spent years as the backup. He was the third goalkeeper at the 1990 World Cup and did not play. Six years later he started every match at Euro 96, saved Gianfranco Zola's penalty in the group stage and saved Gareth Southgate's kick in the semifinal shootout at Wembley. Germany won the tournament. He then coached Germany's goalkeepers from 2004 to 2021, and the team won the 2014 World Cup with Manuel Neuer in goal.
Andreas Köpke was born in Kiel on March 12, 1962. The English and German Wikipedia both list his height as 1.82 meters, just under 6 feet. He started as a right winger in the Holstein Kiel youth teams, and the club moved him into goal while he was still a junior. The Bodo Illgner page covers the goalkeeper who held the Germany shirt before him. The Oliver Kahn page covers the one who held it after him. This page is about the goalkeeper in between, who waited for the job and then won a European Championship with it.
Kiel, Berlin and Nürnberg
Köpke played his first professional match for Holstein Kiel on May 30, 1980, in the 2. Bundesliga North. Kiel beat VfL Osnabrück 7-1. In 1983 he joined SC Charlottenburg in Berlin, which had just been promoted to the 2. Bundesliga. He played all 38 league matches that season, and the club was still relegated. He moved across the city to Hertha BSC and was the starter there for two seasons. Hertha dropped out of the 2. Bundesliga in 1986, and he signed with 1. FC Nürnberg in the Bundesliga.
Nürnberg's starting goalkeeper, Herbert Heider, was badly injured before the 1986-87 season began. Köpke made his Bundesliga debut on Aug. 9, 1986, at Werder Bremen. Nürnberg led 2-0 at halftime, and Bremen won 5-3. He kept the job for eight seasons. In 1987-88 Nürnberg finished fifth, and only Werder Bremen's Oliver Reck and Cologne's Bodo Illgner conceded fewer goals. Kicker named him to its Bundesliga team of the season for 1987-88, 1992-93 and 1994-95.
He also took penalties. On Oct. 31, 1992, Nürnberg trailed Cologne 1-0 when the referee awarded Nürnberg a penalty. Köpke ran the length of the field and scored past Illgner, his rival for the Germany shirt. Nürnberg won 2-1. On Oct. 8, 1993, he scored another penalty in the 88th minute of a 3-0 win against Dynamo Dresden. Those are the two Bundesliga goals on his record.
He was named German Footballer of the Year in 1993. He won it at Nürnberg, a club that was not winning titles.
Late in the 1993-94 season, Nürnberg played Bayern Munich while fighting relegation. Bayern defender Thomas Helmer poked the ball wide of the post after a corner, and the referee awarded a goal on the assistant referee's word. Television cameras showed that the ball had not gone in. Bayern won 2-1. The German Football Association upheld Nürnberg's protest and ordered a replay. Bayern won the replay 5-0, and Nürnberg was relegated.
Frankfurt and Marseille
Eintracht Frankfurt signed him in the summer of 1994. He replaced Uli Stein as the starter and played every league match in 1994-95. Frankfurt was relegated in 1996, a few weeks before he won the European Championship.
After Euro 96, VfB Stuttgart presented him as a new signing. He then announced a move to Barcelona. That deal collapsed when Barcelona used an exit clause and signed Portugal goalkeeper Vítor Baía instead. Köpke signed with Olympique de Marseille. Marseille finished 11th in his first season and fourth in his second, and its 27 goals conceded in 1997-98 were the fewest in the French league. Early in the 1998-99 season he lost his place to Stéphane Porato.
He returned to Nürnberg in January 1999. The club was in the relegation places, and it was relegated again on goals scored on the final day. He stayed in the 2. Bundesliga with Nürnberg. The club finished fourth in 1999-2000 and won the 2. Bundesliga in 2000-01. He retired after that promotion. On June 15, 2001, 40,000 fans filled the stadium in Nuremberg for his farewell match. The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation counts 346 Bundesliga matches, 173 matches in the 2. Bundesliga, and 68 matches in the French league.
Behind Illgner
In the summer of 1988 Köpke was the starting goalkeeper for West Germany's Olympic team. A torn medial ligament kept him out of the tournament in Seoul, where the team won the bronze medal.
His senior debut came on May 30, 1990, against Denmark, a warm-up match before the World Cup. He replaced Raimond Aumann at halftime, and West Germany won 1-0. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy he was the third goalkeeper, behind Illgner and Aumann. West Germany won the tournament, and he did not play a minute. He was in the squad again at Euro 92, where Germany lost the final to Denmark, and he did not play there either. He was also in the squad for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, with Illgner still the starter. Illgner retired from the national team after Germany lost the 1994 quarterfinal, and Berti Vogts made Köpke the No. 1.
He waited behind Illgner from 1990 to 1994. He kept starting every week in the Bundesliga during those years, and he was 32 when the Germany shirt became his.
Euro 96
Germany played its group matches at Old Trafford in Manchester. It beat the Czech Republic 2-0 on June 9 and Russia 3-0 on June 16. On June 19 it drew 0-0 with Italy. Köpke saved a penalty from Gianfranco Zola in that match, and UEFA named him man of the match. The draw sent Italy, the 1994 World Cup runner-up, home after the group stage. Germany did not concede a goal in its three group matches.
Germany beat Croatia 2-1 in the quarterfinal at Old Trafford on June 23. The semifinal was against England at Wembley Stadium on June 26. Alan Shearer scored for England in the third minute, and Stefan Kuntz equalized in the 16th. The score was still 1-1 after extra time. Both teams scored their first five penalties. England defender Gareth Southgate took England's sixth kick, and Köpke saved it. Andreas Möller scored the next kick, and Germany won the shootout 6-5.
The final was at Wembley on June 30. Patrik Berger put the Czech Republic ahead with a penalty in the 59th minute. Oliver Bierhoff equalized in the 73rd minute and scored the golden goal in the 95th. Germany won 2-1. Köpke played every minute of the tournament.
UEFA named him to the Euro 96 team of the tournament. The International Federation of Football History and Statistics named him the world's best goalkeeper of 1996. He was 34.
The 1998 World Cup and retirement
Köpke was the starter at the 1998 World Cup in France. In the second group match, against Yugoslavia, he misjudged a low cross, and Dragan Stojković scored to make it 2-0. The New York Times reported that Germany came back to draw 2-2. Germany lost 3-0 to Croatia in the quarterfinal. English Wikipedia reports that he had decided before the tournament to retire from the national team afterward, and the Croatia match was his last. He finished with 59 caps between 1990 and 1998. The German Wikipedia counts 28 matches in which he did not concede a goal. Oliver Kahn became the starter after him.
Germany's goalkeeper coach
In October 2004 Jürgen Klinsmann, then the Germany coach, hired Köpke as the national team's goalkeeping coach. He replaced Sepp Maier, whose career is on the Sepp Maier page. Under Klinsmann, Germany chose Jens Lehmann over Kahn as the starter for the 2006 World Cup. Köpke stayed on when Joachim Löw took over after that tournament. Germany finished third at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and lost the Euro 2008 final. Manuel Neuer became the starter at the 2010 World Cup. Germany won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2017 Confederations Cup. Köpke left the national team in July 2021, after Euro 2020, at the same time as Löw. He had been in the job for 17 years.
He worked briefly as Hertha BSC's goalkeeping coach under Klinsmann in late 2019. In March 2023 Klinsmann became South Korea's head coach, and Yonhap reported that Köpke joined his staff as goalkeeping coach. He held that job into 2024.
The palm on the gloves he wore
By the 1990s goalkeeper gloves had foam latex palms, and a modern goalkeeper palm is still foam latex. That palm is the catch surface. The Zola and Southgate saves were made with that foam. Moisture on that foam activates grip by sealing the micro-pores. Water fills the pores, blocks air through the backside, and the foam sucks onto the ball. Sweat is not clean water. When the moisture evaporates, salt from sweat stays in the pores and keeps drawing the natural moisture out of the latex. Dirt packs in with the salt. The palm can still look whole while the ball slides off it. Why those pores create suction is in how latex foam grips the ball.
People hear the word balm and think of lip balm. KEEPER BALM is a compound of organic, natural ingredients that is safer than most lip balms, and it was made for grip on the foam palms of goalkeeper gloves. KEEPER BALM is a compound of humectants. Those humectants keep the natural moisture in the latex, and they restore the natural moisture to latex that has dried out. Restoring that moisture restores the pliability that is already in foam latex. The difference between this grip product and a cream for skin is in what KEEPER BALM is.
If the foam is still on the palm, wash the gloves, let them air-dry, and apply KEEPER BALM. Wash the dirt and the salt out with a lukewarm rinse, and squeeze the palms gently. Do not dunk the gloves. A soak leaves grit and water in the foam. That packs the pores instead of emptying them. Air-dry the pair away from a radiator, a dryer, and a hot car. Then apply a thin layer of KEEPER BALM to the clean, dry palms. The steps are in how to care for goalkeeper gloves. The same order, for foam that has dried out, is in how to restore grip on dried goalkeeper gloves.
KEEPER BALM is for foam palms that can still take grip maintenance. If a goalkeeper cannot use KEEPER BALM because of the condition of their glove palms, then Glove Glu is an option. Replace the pair when that is the right call.
Pros use it too, and KEEPER BALM keeps goalkeeper gloves gripping like new for the life of the gloves.
The part other goalkeepers can copy is that he stayed ready through four years as a backup and then made the saves when Germany needed them. He saved Zola's penalty at Old Trafford, saved Southgate's kick at Wembley and won Euro 96 at 34. If the foam is still on the palms, wash the gloves, let them dry, and apply KEEPER BALM before the next session.