Career
He earned 71 caps and scored 7 goals for the Germany national football team from 1932 to 1942, and played in two World Cups: 1934 and 1938. The DFB list him in the top 20 best German football players of all time. One of the best full backs of his era, Paul Janes established a record for most German caps which wasn’t broken until 1970.
Janes started out as a right half back, but during the 1934 World Cup he debuted as right back and stayed at that position for some 4 seasons before moving back into a sweeper role.
He was injured during the 1936 Olympics and thus was spared of the embarrassing defeat of Germany by Norway. During the latter half of the 1930s, Germany possessed one of the strongest full back pairings in European football with Paul Janes on the right and Reinhold Münzenberg on the left side.
Vittorio Pozzo, the coach of World Champions Italy, nominated Janes for a 1937 continental selection, but Janes could not participate due to an injury. His trademark were hard shots from all possible angles, his seven goals for Germany all came from either freekicks (4) or penalties (3).
He was also a very calm player who kept his cool even in nerve-wrecking situations.
During World World War II, Janes served in the Kriegsmarine. He captained Germany 31 times. Despite his age of 38, Janes almost would have had a comeback for Germany in the first international game after World World War II in 1950, but he broke his foot shortly before and thus had to finish his career for good.
Janes was known to be a silent man who didn’t divulge in too much talking.
In 1934, he was asked about what it was like playing in the World Cup in Italy, his response was: "Warm". His home team was Fortuna Düsseldorf, where he worked as trainer after the war.
He also coached Eintracht Trier. During his playing career Düsseldorf dominated the (topflight) district division through the late 1920s and 1930s, winning the Western German football championship in 1931, the German football championship in 1933 and a German Vice-Championship in 1936.
The club also appeared in the final of the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today"s German Cup, in 1937.
The Paul-Janes-Stadion in Düsseldorf-Flingern is one of the grounds of Fortuna Düsseldorf (1930–1972 and 2002–2005), named after their famous player. In his 1978 book "Fussball", Helmut Schön characterised Janes as follows:
"A man who could fight but also able to play technically brilliant. He was gifted with a simply phenomenal spin kick.
He scored countless goals with freekicks from 30 or 40 meters with his glass-hard shot.".