Gerhard Welz - the would-be world champion: Gerhard Welz was on course to become Sepp Maier’s back-up at the 1974 World Cup. After displacing Manfred Manglitz as FC’s number one in 1971, he had produced outstanding performances when a serious injury stopped him. On 2 March 1974 he collided with Peter Hidien of Hamburger SV, was briefly unconscious, and shortly afterwards suffered another accident in training, smashing his head against a goalpost.\n\nA blood clot was discovered and emergency surgery probably saved his life, but his career was permanently damaged.
Wolfgang Kleff and Norbert Nigbur went to the 1974 World Cup instead, while at club level Welz later slipped behind Harald Schumacher and Slobodan Topalović. He carried on playing until 1987, but bigger success never returned.