Domestically he played for and was also captain of Borussia Mönchengladbach between 1955 and 1962. During this time he led the side to their first sporting achievement in 1960, when Borussia won the DFB Cup by defeating their archrivals 1. FC Köln 3–1. He then went on to become one of the first Germans to play for a club side outside West Germany, transferring to the Italian team FC Modena for a fee of 100,000 marks.
