European champion in 1980 and World Cup runner-up in 1982 German now has more than 30 years’ experience as coach It is one of those stories that would be almost unthinkable today. At the age of 24, Horst Hrubesch was still playing for SC Westtunnen, a small amateur club from Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia. An impressive 1974/75 season brought him to the attention of Rot-Weiss Essen, where he would score 80 times in 83 games between 1975 and 1978. Speaking later to Der Westen about his time at RWE, Hrubesch described it as "a decisive factor in my career". Amazingly, before he accepted the club’s offer, he had to get the ok from his family. Back then his job as a roofer paid more than a starting Bundesliga player.