Heiko Weber, the former FC Carl Zeiss Jena forward and coach, has died at the age of 61. The club announced his death on Monday, October 26, 2026. Weber had gone public in February with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and Bild reported that he died of complications from the disease.
“With Heiko Weber, our FC Carl Zeiss Jena loses a very special person who shaped our club during and after reunification like hardly anyone else,” the club said.
The last goal of East German football
Born in Thale on June 26, 1965, Weber came through at BSG Stahl Thale and joined Carl Zeiss Jena in 1988. He wore the club’s shirt more than 300 times. In 1988 he scored Jena’s last home goal in European competition, in a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria in the Cup Winners’ Cup.
In May 1991, away at Energie Cottbus, he scored the second goal in a 2-0 win that sent Jena into the 2. Bundesliga of reunified Germany. It was the last goal ever scored in the DDR-Oberliga. He went on to play 148 second-division games for Jena, scoring 36 goals, before spells with Preußen Münster and a brief return to Jena.
Coaching
As Jena’s head coach from 2004, Weber led the club up from the fourth tier in 2005 and into the 2. Bundesliga a year later. He then coached Energie Cottbus’s reserves, briefly stood in with their first team, and managed Erzgebirge Aue. He returned to Jena as sporting director in 2009 and coached the team again in 2011.
He later coached SSV Markranstädt and ZFC Meuselwitz, took charge of Jena’s reserve side in 2020, and finished his coaching career back in Meuselwitz from 2022.
A last show of support
After his diagnosis, fans and former teammates raised money and played a benefit match to help pay for his pain treatment. “What Heiko Weber achieved for our club will never be forgotten, just as he will never be forgotten as a person,” Jena said.