Dynamo Dresden mourns the loss of its club icon Hans-Jürgen “Dixie” Dörner. The record player and honorary captain of the second division soccer club 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 mourning.” In Dörner, “not only the greatest player in the club’s history left us,” said Scholze, “We also lost a person who had conquered all of our hearts.” For more than five decades, Dörner “dedicated himself to the colors of our city and our club in an impressive and outstanding way on and off the pitch”.
The death of the “Beckenbauer of the East”, as Dörner was called because of his success and playing style as a libero, also made former teammate Ede Geyer sad. “The news blew my mind, I’m deeply affected and stunned,” Geyer told the Sports Information Service: “Dixie and I have fought many fights. He had that certain something and was an inspiration for many footballers.”
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 from Hannover 96 for the second division away game next Sunday (1.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the second division and on Sky). In addition, the team should play with black ribbons as a sign of sympathy.
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