Career
Blankenburg"s career began at the youth of VfL Heidenheim. His professional career began at 1. under Max Merkel in the 1967-1968 season. He then transferred to Wiener Sportclub in Vienna for 45,000 German marks, where he managed to impress.
After the season, he switched to Turn- und Sportverein 1860 München for 100,000 German marks.
In that season, he had 31 appearances and even scored one goal, but his team was relegated, he moved on to Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Ajax Golden Era He played together with Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Ruud Krol, and Arie Haan.
His coaches at Ajax were Stefan Kovács and Rinus Michels – who designed the famous Dutch offside trap around him and Velibor Vasović. Blankenburg was Ajax"s team sweeper and was widely considered to be one of the best in Europe.
Hamburger SV In the end, he could not assert himself at the club – during his second season at the club he only played 13 league matches, so he transferred at the end of that season to Neuchâtel Xamax in Switzerland.
In 1978, Blankenburg moved to Chicago Sting in the United States, before being loaned out for a few months to KSC Hasselt in Belgium. He retired from professional football in 1981 at Preußen Münster. However, in 1982 he moved in lower league teams Hummelsbütteler SV and Lüneburger Saskatchewan, where he finally ended his career in 1985, aged 38.
National team He was never selected for the German national football team, one of the reasons was that the outstanding Franz Beckenbauer fulfilled the role of libero there at the time.
Johan Cruijff asked him to play for the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup but Blankenburg refused, he was still hoping for his homeland selection. 1. Hamburger SV.