Dieter Ficken

Dieter Ficken

Personal information
Full name	Dieter Ficken
Place of birth	Bremen, Germany
Playing position	Forward
Youth career
1962-1965	Long Island University
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1970-1974	S.C. Eintracht
National team
1975	United States	1	(0)
Teams managed
1974-1975	Long Island University (assistant)
1976-1978	Long Island University
1979-2006	Columbia University
2007	Long Island University
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Dieter Ficken (born in Bremen, Germany) was a U.S. soccer forward who spent his club career in the U.S. third division German American Soccer League. He earned one cap with the U.S. national team. He has coached collegiate soccer since 1974 and is currently the Long Island University men’s soccer team.

Player

Youth

While born in Germany, Ficken grew up in Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. His family had traveled to the U.S. when he was nine for a visit, but ended up staying in the U.S.^[1] Ficken attended Long Island University where he played on the men’s soccer team from 1962 to 1965. He graduated in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in business management. He returned to LIU to gain a master’s degree in finance in 1970.

Club

Ficken played for S.C. Eintracht of the German American Soccer League from 1970 until 1974.

National team

Ficken played for the U.S. team at the 1967 Pan American Games. The U.S. went 1-2 in the group stage and did not qualify for the second round. Ficken earned one cap with the U.S. national team in a 2-1 World Cup qualificaiton loss to Mexico on September 10, 1972.^[2]

Coach

In 1974, Ficken entered the coaching ranks as an assistant with Long Island University. He became head coach of LIU in 1976. Before leaving the school in 1979, he led the team to a 39-9-7 record. Columbia University hired Ficken as its men’s soccer coach in 1979. During his twenty-seven seasons, he led the team to a 252-139-53 record and the 1983 NCAA championship game where it lost to the University of Indiana. That year, he was named the NCAA Coach of the Year.^[3] He announced his retirement from Columbia on January 13, 2006. On March 6, 2007, Ficken returned to Long Island University to become the men’s soccer coach. Now Ficken coaches the u16 New York Cosmos East academy club^[4]

External links

• Profile of Ficken’s coaching career

Persondata
Name	Ficken, Dieter
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth	Bremen, Germany
Date of death
Place of death