Helmut Kremers (born 24 March 1949) is a German former professional footballer who played as a full-back. His twin brother, Erwin Kremers, also played as a German international with the two brothers playing with each other regularly. Helmut and Erwin Kremers are the first ever twins to play in the Bundesliga.[1]
Kremers played in eight games for his country, the last time on 12 March 1975, in a friendly defeat at the hands of England.[6] Although playing on less occasions for West Germany than his twin brother (who won 15 caps), Kremers was part of the 1974 FIFA World Cup winning squad. Erwin Kremers missed out on that due to a disciplinary decision taken beforehand.
Kremers was FC Schalke 04 manager three times between 1989 and 1993, interim coach in 1989 and from 12 September to 6 December 1994 the last president to date. The sentence he said at the general meeting became legendary: “When we used to play against Dortmund, we didn’t even change our clothes.” After his term of office, the presidency was replaced by a change in the statutes by a board appointed by the supervisory board, which was then headed by Gerhard Rehberg. In December 2011 he ran for the office of President of MSV Duisburg but was not elected.[7]
Today Kremers is managing director of a GmbH for project development in Duisburg, which he founded in 1992.[8][9]
Miscellaneous
Kremers completed an apprenticeship as a wholesale merchant. In a portrait in May 1974, he was described as a "reasonable person", as a "pragmatist", "more Hanseatic cool than Rhenish cheerful nature" and as a person "between naturalness and well-concealed arrogance". Together with his twin brother Erwin, he reached 44th place in the German hit parade in 1974 as "Die Kremers" with the title The Girl of My Dreams. The two Kremers brothers lived under the same roof with their families during their careers, and they also owned a discotheque together. During his career, Helmut Kremers spoke out in favour of the abolition of transfer fees when changing clubs, since this was "a kind of human trafficking".[10]
Literature
Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Player Encyclopedia 1963–1994. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012. ISBN978-3-89784-214-4, page 279.
Fritz Tauber: German national football player. Player statistics from A to Z. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN978-3-89784-397-4, page 69.