Bernard Dietz

Football player infobox
playername = Bernard Dietz
fullname = Bernard Dietz
nickname = Ennatz
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1948|3|22
cityofbirth = Bockum-Hövel
countryofbirth = Germany
height = height|m=1.78
currentclub = retired
position = defender, sweeper
youthyears =
youthclubs = "SV Bockum-Hövel"
years =1970-1982
1982-1987
clubs = MSV Duisburg
FC Schalke 04
caps(goals) = 396 (70)
135 0(8)
nationalyears = 1974-1981
nationalteam = West Germany
nationalcaps(goals) = 053 0(0)

Bernard Dietz (born March 22, 1948 in Bockum-Hövel, Germany) is a former German football player and manager.

Player bio

A defender and sweeper in his professional career, Bernard Dietz played in 495 Bundesliga matches for MSV Duisburg and FC Schalke 04, scoring 70 goals in his Duisburg years and seven in his days with FC Schalke 04 in the top tier of German football. Leaving Duisburg for Schalke in 1982 caused him to feature 34 times (1 goal) for the Gelsenkirchen outfit in the 2nd Bundesliga of 1983-1984 after the club had been relegated from Bundesliga in Dietz' first season with them. With the German Cup final participation in 1975 his biggest success in his club career, the defender made several other stir. He is still the second best goalscorer of MSV Duisburg in Bundesliga and although he took part in over 500 games he just received 11 bookings (& no sent off). On November 5, 1977, the down-to-earth defender scored four goals in MSV Duisburg's 6-3 against Bayern München and was, in 1978-1979, the captain of MSV Duisburg when they reached the round of the last four in the UEFA Cup.

West Germany career

On December 22, 1974, Dietz won his debut for West Germany in a Euro 1976 qualifier against Malta in Malta. After his final game for his nation, on May 19, 1981, against Brazil in Stuttgart, he had been capped 53 times by Helmut Schön and Jupp Derwall. Participating also in the 1976 UEFA European Football Championship and at the 1978 FIFA World Cup, Dietz was able to lift the 1980 UEFA European Football Championship trophy as the captain of the triumphant West German team.

Manager bio

He stayed in the game after his retirement, working as manager on professional and amateur level. In October 1999 Dietz was appointed caretaker manager of (then) 2nd Bundesliga side VfL Bochum after the club had parted company with Ernst Middendorp. No intention to do the job permanently, Bochum won five of those seven matches under Dietz' guidance. Dietz returned to coaching Bochum's youth when the found Ernst Middendorp's successor in Ralf Zumdick, but was straight back in charge of Bochum's first-team affairs after Zumdick failed to avoid the drop straight back to 2nd Bundesliga in 2001. His second spell on top of Bochum's coaching worked out no success and made him resign in December 2001. Switching to his old club MSV Duisburg to take charge of Duisburg's reserves, Dietz returned to 2nd Bundesliga coaching later on. However, just as caretaker to bridge the time until Duisburg replaced Pierre Littbarski with Norbert Meier. In May 2006 Dietz ended his deal as reserve-team coach with Duisburg to take charge of Rot-Weiß Ahlen in the third best German division.

Trivia

* To honour the efforts of Dietz for MSV Duisburg in his career, the fans of the club decided to dub the clubs mascot, a zebra, "Ennatz". "Ennatz" is the nickname of Dietz.

External links

* [http://www.autogramm-archiv.de/spieler/dietz-bernard.htm Autograph Bernard Dietz]

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