Volker Graul

Volker Graul (18 June 1952 – 22 May 2022) was a German footballer who played as a forward. He began his career as a professional footballer in 1970 with VfL Osnabrück, with whom he became champion and runner-up in the Regionalliga Nord. In 1973, he played two half-seasons with Den Bosch in the first two Dutch leagues. As a player for Arminia Bielefeld, he was the top scorer in the 2. Bundesliga Nord in 1974–75 with 30 goals. He also made 45 Bundesliga appearances for Arminia Bielefeld between 1978 and 1981, scoring six goals. Towards the end of the 1970s, he also played for Preußen Münster and Fortuna Köln in the 2. Bundesliga. Throughout the mid-1990s, he had success as manager and coach of FC Gütersloh. He would also briefly represent his home country of West Germany in 1969, 1970 and 1975.

Club career Regionalliga and Eredivisie Growing up in Gütersloh and developing his footballing skills in the youth department of SVA Gütersloh, the talented attacker already attracted the interest of the German Football Association in the A team of the West German youth team. For his senior year debut in the 1970–71 season, Graul signed a contract with VfL Osnabrück for the 1970–71 Regionalliga Nord. The team from Bremer Brücke, located in the heart of the Schinkel, had won the championships in the north in 1969 and 1970. Graul belonged to the championship team again for the 1970–71 season under Fritz Langner and in 1971–72 he won the championship as runner-ups with coach Erwin Türk. In the two promotion rounds to the Bundesliga in 1971 and 1972, however, VfL was unable to prevail. In the 1972–73 preliminary round, the young striker played ten games with four goals for Osnabrück and then moved to Den Bosch for the 1972–73 Eredivisie. In total, he has played 49 games in the Regionalliga Nord and scored 22 goals.

Den Bosch, who were in the penultimate place in the Eredivisie when Graul arrived, were unable to improve until the end of the season and were relegated. In 17 Eredivisie appearances, Graul scored four goals. In the beginning of the 1973–74 Eerste Divisie, Graul scored six goals in 13 games until his departure at the beginning of December 1973, four of them penalties. Most pressing news was that he no longer had a regular place in the team, which was also fighting against relegation in the Eerste Divisie. When Arminia Bielefeld had to worry about staying in the league in the last regional league round of the 1973–74 Regionalliga West, with 8:28 points after the preliminary round, Volker Graul returned to his home state of North Rhine-Westphalia and played for the team from the second half of the season. He scored eleven goals in 16 games and thus played a significant role in Arminia's 14th place in the table and the associated nomination for the inaugural 1974–75 2. Bundesliga. In addition to signing Graul, Arminia Bielefeld had three coaches in action: Norbert Lessle, Willy Nolting and the coach typically regarded as the club's savior from relegation, Rudi Faßnacht, who had also signed Jonny Hey with him.

Münster came in sixth place in the 1976–77 season with the coaches Rudi Faßnacht and Werner Biskup from April 1977, equal on points with several other teams. Graul had scored 13 goals in 32 games and accepted an offer from Jean Löring, the president of Fortuna Köln, for the 1977–78 2. Bundesliga. In the cathedral city, he increased his scoring rate to 18 goals, but Fortuna only reached fourth place under coaches Ernst-Günter Habig and from January 1978, Rudi Faßnacht which prevented the long-awaited return to the Bundesliga. He only stayed in Köln's Südstadt at the beginning of the 1978–79 preliminary round as by the end of his tenure with the club, he played a total of 47 second division games for Köln with 22 goals and returned to Bundesliga newcomers Bielefeld in October 1978. He contributed the point-scoring goal to his Bundesliga debut on 14 October in the 1–1 home draw against VfB Stuttgart.

International career On 18 October 1969, the striker made his debut in the German youth team alongside team-mates Uli Hoeneß and Rainer Bonhof in the international match of the youth national team in Geleen against the Netherlands. Graul retired as a footballer at the age of 30 out of annoyance as in the following three years he more or less only played in the Borgholzhausen old men's team of TuS Solbad Ravensberg and ran a trade in used cars.

Corruption scandals In 2006, Graul, together with player agent Fali Ramadani, played a central role in the embezzlement investigations against the ex-manager of Bayer Leverkusen, Reiner Calmund, in which the family of are also said to have been involved. In 2007, Graul and Ramadani were again involved in a scandal over player transfers with TuS Koblenz.

Personal life and death Volker Graul was the son of , who played for Werder Bremen in the Oberliga Nord between 1947 and 1950. During his career as a player, he was often compared to his teammate Ewald Lienen due to both being from the same state of North Rhine-Westphalia as it would experience a boom in football throughout the 1970s and 1980s. This was due to their contrasting perspectives in their careers, whereas Lienen refused to sign autographs and was a critic of capitalism, Graul would often have no qualms with it.

In his later years, Graul had suffered from heart problems for years, died on 22 May 2022, a few weeks before his 70th birthday in a clinic in Bad Rothenfelde.