Richard Hofmann was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 football (soccer)

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player. He played in 25 internationals for Germany as a centre forward, scoring 24 goals, including the first ever international hat-trick

Hat-trick

A hat-trick or hat trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he...

 against England

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 by a player from outside the home nations

Home Nations

Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...

.

Life and career

He was born in Meerane

Meerane

Meerane is a town in the Zwickau district of Saxony, Germany. It lies midway between the towns of Chemnitz and Zwickau.As of 31 December 2008, there were 16,517 inhabitants...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany, and began his career with the Meerane 07 club in 1922. In 1927 he was signed by English coach Jimmy Hogan

Jimmy Hogan

James "Jimmy" Hogan was an English football player and coach of Irish descent...

 for Dresdner SC

Dresdner SC

Dresdner SC is a German multisport club playing in Dresden, Saxony. Founded on 30 April 1898, the club was a founding member of the German Football Association in 1900...

, becoming known to fans as "König" ("King") Richard. He was known for his thunderous shots with either foot. He started his international career in 1927, scoring a hat-trick against Switzerland. At the 1928 Olympic Games

1928 Summer Olympics

The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...

 in Amsterdam he was sent off in a match against Uruguay, and was suspended from internationals for a year.

In 1930, Hofmann lost his right ear in a car accident. This impaired his balance and had a serious impact on his career, later playing with protection over his ear. However, on May 10, 1930, playing for the German national team against England in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, he scored a hat-trick in a 3-3 draw. He also scored hat-tricks for the national team against Sweden (1929), Denmark (1931) and Finland (1932). In all, he played 25 times for the national team, scoring 24 goals. He captained the German team in four matches, and earned his last cap against France in 1933. Later that year he was suspended from the national team for a "violation of his amateur status", after signing an advertising deal for a cigarette company. However, he continued to play with the Dresdner SC team until 1947, when he joined BSG Hainsberg and later Lok Stendal

Lok Stendal

1. FC Lok Stendal is a German association football club that plays in Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt.- History :Founded in 1909, FC Viktoria Stendal was dissolved in the aftermath of World War II and re-established in Soviet-occupied East Germany in 1945 as SG Stendal-Nord. The club underwent a number of...

 as a coach.

Hofmann died in 1983 in Freital

Freital

Freital is the biggest town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the small river Weißeritz, 8 km southwest of Dresden.- Geography :...

, Saxony, then in the GDR. The main football stadium in Meerane is named Richard-Hofmann-Stadium in his honour.