Forgotten World Cup record: BVB star's mark stood for decades | OneFootball

As the 2026 World Cup enters its decisive stage, information about a past World Cup has surfaced that is likely known to only a few. At the 1966 World Cup in England, Siggi Held posted a top figure among all participating players.

At the ongoing tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Michael Olise currently leads the very category once dominated by BVB’s Siggi Held. The Frenchman has so far provided five assists in this tournament that led to goals. Behind him are Morocco’s Brahim Diaz and Brazil’s Bruno Guimarães with four assists each.

Four assists were also what earned Siggi Held the top spot in assists at the end of the tournament on the island. He shared that top figure with another German player: Uwe Seeler, who also finished the finals with four assists. The DFB team, coached by Helmut Schön for the first time, scored a total of fifteen goals, which was also the best mark by any team at the 1966 World Cup.

But both Siggi Held and Uwe Seeler would surely have gladly traded all of those top figures for the title, which West Germany missed out on in the memorable World Cup final at Wembley, when England won 4–2 after extra time.

Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Tilkowski, Emmerich, and Paul from BVB were there too

Also representing Germany from Borussia Dortmund in 1966 was Lothar Emmerich, who scored a legendary goal against Spain, contributing one goal to Germany’s campaign, just as Siggi Held also scored once. Held was in fact the first German player to score at all, netting the 1–0 in the opening group match against Switzerland, who were ultimately beaten 5–0.

Other BVB players at the 1966 World Cup included Hans Tilkowski, who had conceded only two goals in his five appearances on the way to the final, but was then powerless four times against England, including on Geoff Hurst’s strike known in German-speaking countries as the “Wembley Goal.” Also in Helmut Schön’s squad was the recently deceased Wolfgang Paul, though unlike his Borussia Dortmund teammates, he did not make a single appearance.

This means the list of all German players who have at one time recorded the most assists of any player at a World Cup is as follows:

So Thomas Häßler is another former BVB player on this list. At the time of the 1994 World Cup, however, he was still an AS Roma player, only joining Borussia Dortmund in 1998 for a season that turned out to be thoroughly unfortunate.

FIFA has only officially recorded assists since that 1966 tournament, when Siggi Held posted the top figure.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.