Quick Facts
Biography
Toni Turek, real name Anton Turek, (18 January 1919 – 11 May 1984) was a German football goalkeeper.
Biography
Turek was born in Duisburg.
He started his career at Duisburger Sportverein, but he soon switched to TuS Duisburg 48/99. In 1950 he switched to Fortuna Düsseldorf. Between 1950 and 1954 he played 20 games for the German national team. He played in "The Miracle of Bern" 1954 FIFA World Cup final against Hungary and won the Championship.
After a fine save from a very close shot by Nándor Hidegkuti, he was described by the sports reporter Herbert Zimmermann with the words "Toni, you're a football God". He later had to apologize for that comment because the church complained about the comparison of a football player with God.
The first time his later coach Sepp Herberger had noticed Toni Turek was on 27 September 1936, when Germany played a preparation game against Luxembourg in Krefeld. Before that game, the youth teams of Krefeld and TuS Duisburg 48/99 had met with the 17-year-old Turek standing in the Duisburg goal. During World War II Turek was lucky things didn't turn out worse for him as a shell splinter struck through his helmet.
Turek died in Neuss in 1984. He had been paralyzed from the waist down since August 1973.