In his years with Hamburg he graduated into a goalkeeper as promising as reliable, known for his ability to save penalties (which earned him the Elfmetertöter nickname).

However, in his three years with the side from Cologne he was just the veteran stand-in for Köln's young first-choice Bodo Illgner and did not manage to get any Bundesliga game for his final professional club.

His first senior cap was a product of Helmut Schön looking for Sepp Maier replacements and the good form of young Kargus for Hamburg in the Bundesliga.

That was the last cap (of three) Kargus won in his career,[2] although he was one of three goalkeepers in the West German squad for the 1978 FIFA World Cup.

After the end of his career, Kargus had several stints as coach to school kids in goalkeeping and has been active as artist painter since 1996, painting scenes of football in 2006,[3] but exclusively non-footballing themes after that.