Friedrich Scherfke

Infobox Football biography
playername = Friedrich Scherfke


fullname = Friedrich Scherfke
dateofbirth = birth date|1909|09|07
cityofbirth = Posen (Poznań),
countryofbirth = German Empire
dateofdeath = death date and age|1983|09|15|1909|09|07
cityofdeath = Berlin
countryofdeath = Germany
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Friedrich Egon (Fritz) Scherfke, ( _pl. Fryderyk Egon "Fryc" Scherfke "or" Szerfke, born on September 7, 1909 in Posen (Poznań), German Empire - died on September 15, 1983 in Berlin, Germany) was an ethnic German who became an interwar soccer midfield player for the Polish national football team.

Scherfke's native city in the Provinz Posen saw a Polish uprising in late 1918, and by the Treaty of Versailles became officially part of the Second Polish Republic in 1920 when he was 10. He spent most of his career in Warta Poznań, which was one of the best teams of the Polish Soccer League in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the league in 1929 and finishing second in 1938. Scherfke also played 12 games for the Polish national team, scoring 2 goals. His debut occurred on October 2, 1932 in a 2-1 win against Latvia. He participated in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where Poland finished fourth, playing in games against Hungary (3-0) and Great Britain (5-4). His name, however, will always be remembered in Poland as the one who scored the first goal for Poland in the 1938 FIFA World Cup. This happened on June 5, 1938, in Strasbourg, France, during the legendary match Poland - Brazil. Poland lost 5-6 and Scherfke netted on the penalty kick in the 23rd minute.

During the Second World War, as "Volksdeutscher" (ethnic German), he was called up to the Wehrmacht. Rumors claim that he was a driver for the Gestapo and managed to protect some former soccer team mates from persecution by the Nazis. At the end of the war he was captured as POW by British soldiers. He was released on 25 July and found a new home in West Berlin, where he died in 1983.

ee also

* Polish Roster in World Cup Soccer France 1938
* Ernst Willimowski
* Władysław Szczepaniak