Died at the age of 75
Second division team mourns crowd favorite “Jumbo”
January 10, 2025 – 6:35 p.mReading time: 1 min.
During his playing days he saved two penalties in one game. Now the former Hanover professional Franz-Josef Pauly has died.
Former goalkeeper Franz-Josef Pauly has died at the age of 75. His long-time club Hannover 96 announced this on Friday. Pauly was a crowd favorite among the Lower Saxony team and was called “Jumbo” by the fans. His nickname came about by chance when a teammate at the time called him that to avoid confusion with another “Jupp”. The name stuck and became his trademark.
Pauly began his football career as an outfield player at SpVgg Cochem, but moved to Germania Metternich, where he was retrained as a goalkeeper. After stints at TSV 1860 Munich and again Cochem, he came to Hannover 96 in 1971. For the club he played 94 Bundesliga games and 66 games in the 2nd league.
He was also one of the goalkeepers who saved two penalties in one game: On April 6, 1974, Pauly saved one penalty before and one after halftime against Wuppertaler SV. Despite his brilliant performance, 96 narrowly lost 1:2 and was relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of the season.
Pauly’s time at 96 was of great importance to him: “Hannover were my most important years as a footballer,” he later recalled. After moving to Fortuna Cologne in 1977, Pauly ended his active career in 1982 and dedicated himself to a tennis center in Mülheim im Breisgau, which he ran after training as a teacher. Most recently he lived in Switzerland.