Andreas Thiel

Goalkeeper Andreas Thiel, nicknamed “Hexer”, participated in three Olympic Games as the first goalkeeper of German teams. In 1984 he won the silver medal representing West Germany, and in 1992 and 1996 finished 10th and seventh respectively, both times representing the re-unified German team. In 1984 the team and all players were awarded with the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award. Thiel won 256 international caps, and was the most capped German goalkeeper.

Domestically, Thiel played in 528 Bundesliga matches with Alemannia Aachen (1974-77), TV Hochdorf (1977-79), VfL Gummersbach (1979-91), TSV Bayer Dormagen (1991-2001), and finally SG Flensburg-Handewitt (2001). He helped Gummersbach to win five German Championships, three German Cups, and twice the European Cup Winners’ Cup. He was elected Handball Player of the Year seven times.

Thiel later studied law and became a lawyer with his own practice in Köln. As a lawyer, he was closely connected to sport. He became a referee at the German Sports Arbitration Court and chairman of the Permanent Court of Arbitration for the license clubs in the German Table Tennis Federation. Thiel also was the legal advisor for the handball Bundesliga. Besides that, he worked as a handball goalkeeper coach with TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen.