Enochs Retires after 15 years of play in Germany

Joe Enochs is retiring this month.  He has played more games for Osnabruck than any player in the club's history, and he's an American. "I have always been proud of Joe's accomplishments," stated Seals coach and General Manager Tom Simpson.  "Not that I was surprised by it. I'm planning on going to the retirement game on the 28th in Osnabruck. So are a couple of players who played for us in our youth days (SFUSC)."

Joe played for our youth teams from 1987 to 1990. After finishing his career with Sac State, Enochs signed with the U.S. Third Division (USISL) San Francisco United All Blacks, and played until the summer of 1994.

In 1994, Enochs received a phone call from a former Sac State teammate Mark Baena. Baena was playing in Germany and was looking for a room mate. Enochs decided to take Baena up on his offer and moved to Germany. Enochs later explained, "I was going to come home after the first year [in Germany], but I was having too much fun." In 1994, Enochs signed with St. Pauli. The team placed him with its Fourth Division amateur farm team. The next season, Enochs and his team mates had moved to the Third Division for the 1995-1996 season where he played in thirty-four games, scoring one goal. He performed well enough that he was offered a position on St. Pauli's first team, but he decided to move to Third Division club VfL Osnabrück in 1996.

Enochs quickly established himself at Osnabrück, seeing time in thirty games in the 1996-1997 season. He never played less than twenty-nine games a season as he was selected as team co-captain. In 2000, Osnabrück earned promotion to the Second Division, but was back in the Third Division the next season. The team won promotion again in 2003 and again in 2007, this time in the last game of the season. Enochs broke the club record for games played on May 19, 2007. In June 2007, he signed a one year extension to his contract Enochs won the "goal of the month" award of German television network ARD in September 2004 for his strike against Bayern Munich in an early round of the German national cup competition. Among the VfL fans, Enochs is widely considered to be the most popular player. His industrious style of playing football has certainly contributed to this fact. At the beginning of the 2007/08 season his club opened a special section for children on the West stand of the stadium, that is named after Enochs. Joe retired at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Enochs earned his only cap with the U.S. national team in a June 7, 2001 scoreless tie with Ecuador. Enochs came on for Tony Sanneh in the 62d minute. He left the game in the 91st minute after suffering a gash to his forehead during a collision. Richie Williams came on for him.

Enochs met his wife, Gunilla, a few months after he arrived in Germany through a blind date. That led to marriage and the birth of his daughter, Emily. In 2008 Enochs opened a bar in the historical part of Osnabrück.

Note: The main content of this article was extracted from Wikipedia

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