Robert Schlienz

Robert Schlienz (3 February 1924 to 18 June 1995) was a German footballer, considered one of the best players ever to play for VfB Stuttgart, now a Bundesliga side. He grew up in Zuffenhausen, which was incorporated into Stuttgart in 1931, and his youth club was FV Zuffenhausen, whose side won the junior championships of the state of Württemberg in 1942. Called up into the Wehrmacht late in the Second World War, he fought on the Eastern Front until a wound to the jaw sent him home. He began playing for VfB Stuttgart as a guest player in the 1944/45 season and joined the club permanently in the summer of 1945. In 1945-46, playing as centre forward, he scored 46 goals in 30 games and became the record goal scorer in the Oberliga. On 14 August 1948 he lost his left forearm in a car accident on the way to a cup match, but his coach Georg Wurzer encouraged him to carry on, and he returned on 5 December 1948 against Bayern Munich as an inside forward in offensive midfield. As captain and playmaker he led VfB Stuttgart to the German Championship in 1950 and 1952 and to the German Cup in 1954 and 1958, and in 1955 and 1956 he earned three caps for West Germany under the coach Sepp Herberger. He ended his career in 1960 and later died in Dettenhausen. VfB Stuttgart named the stadium of its reserve team in Bad Cannstatt after him almost immediately after his death.