Helmut Rahn

Helmut Rahn Biography

Helmut Rahn is a former international footballer who hails from Germany. Born on 16th August, 1929, Rahn played as a forward. He scored the winning goal in the 1954 FIFA World Cup.

Background

Rahn’ football career began with Altenessen from 1938. After 1946, he played football for SC Oelde. He showed a considerable progress there as he scored 52 goals for them.

Debut

Rahn made his professional debut in 1951 for Rot-Weiss Essen. This was his most successful period as he led the team to the DFB Pokal final in 1953 and won the championship in 1955.

It was a dream period for Rahn as he got noticed by the German selectors to play for the German national team.

Rise to Glory

Helmut Rahn is remembered for his exploits in the year 1954.

Though he did not feature in the 22-man squad for the Switzerland series, he exceeded expectations in Montevideo against top Uruguay club Peñarol.

Due to this performance, he stormed his way into the World Cup squad.

Rahn did not get a chance in the first few games but scored in the 8-3 routing by Hungary.

His strong run gave the Germans their second goal in the quarter-final against Yugoslavia. He failed to make an impact in the semi-finals but he more than made it up in the finals.

Trailing 2-0 against Hungary early into the finals, the Germans pulled but quickly with two goals one of which was assisted by him and the other one scored by him.

Then Rahn won the World Cup for Germany from fifteen yards with his left-foot.

Rahn was also part of the German team that reached semifinals at the 1958 World Cup.

His 40 international games yielded 21 goals and, in this process, he became the third highest scorer in World Cup with 10 goals.

Low Points

Helmut Rahn was a muscular wing Forward player.

By 1958, Rahn failed to look after his body as he became a heavy drinker and put on weight. He was also jailed for drunk driving.

But he quickly went through a rehabilitation process and got back to his best in the 1958 World Cup.

Retirement

He was known as "Der Boss" because of his on-field leadership and occasionally also as "The Cannon from Essen".

He retired in 1960 and his final goal came against Portugal. After retirement, Rahn started his own car dealership and survived with a three percent profit.

Helmut Rahn, the person responsible for the resurgence on Germany died on 14th August, 2003, due to a long illness. His funeral was screened live for more than two hours on state television and the whole football fraternity mourned his death.

On 11 July 2004, 50 years after the Bern match, a life-size statue of him was put up near Georg-Melches-Stadium in Essen, on the square named after him.