- Ottmar Hitzfeld
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Ottmar Hitzfeld 
Personal information Full name Ottmar Hitzfeld Date of birth January 12, 1949 Place of birth Lörrach, Baden, West Germany Playing position Striker Club information Current club Switzerland (manager) Youth career 1960–1967 TuS Stetten 1967–1971 FV Lörrach Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1971–1975 FC Basel 92 (66) 1975–1978 VfB Stuttgart 77 (38) 1978–1980 FC Lugano 55 (35) 1980–1983 FC Luzern 72 (30) Total 296 (169) National team 1972 West Germany Olympic 6 (5) Teams managed 1983–1984 SC Zug 1984–1988 FC Aarau 1988–1991 Grasshopper Club Zürich 1991–1997 Borussia Dortmund 1998–2004 Bayern Munich 2007–2008 Bayern Munich 2008– Switzerland * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).Ottmar Hitzfeld (born 12 January 1949 in Lörrach, Baden) is a German former football player (striker) and manager,[1] nicknamed der General ("the general").[2]
With a total of 18 major titles, mostly accumulated in his tenures with Grasshopper Club Zürich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the trained mathematics and sports teacher is one of the most successful coaches of German and international football. He has been elected "World Coach of the Year" twice. He is one of only three managers to win the European Cup/UEFA Champions League with two different clubs, along with Ernst Happel and José Mourinho. He is currently the Head Coach of the Swiss national football team.
Contents
Career as player
Born in 1949 as the youngest of five children, Ottmar Hitzfeld started playing football in the late 1960s with TuS Stetten and FV Lörrach in the lower German leagues before he captured the attention of Swiss first division team FC Basel.[3] He joined the club, located on the other bank of the Rhine, in 1971. With this club the forward won the Swiss championship in 1972 and 1973, in the latter season even contributing as the top striker in Switzerland.[1] In 1975 also he won the cup with Basel.[4]
In 1973, while playing at Basel, he graduated from nearby Lörrach college as a teacher of mathematics and sports.
He retained his amateur status in order to be able to participate in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. There he played amongst others with Uli Hoeneß, the later Bayern Munich player and general manager who would hire him as coach in the late 1990s. One of the highlights of this tournament was the first encounter between the national sides of West and East Germany on the football pitch. West Germany lost this match 2-3 and thus failed to reach the semi-finals. In this match Hitzfeld scored one of his five goals in the tournament.
In 1975, the 26 year old Ottmar Hitzfeld accepted an offer by the then German second division side VfB Stuttgart.[5] At the Swabian side, he was part of a legendary "100 goal offense" (the goal difference that season being 100:36) and in one match against SSV Jahn Regensburg he scored six goals. After two years, in 1977, the team achieved promotion to the first division the Bundesliga. Hitzfeld had by that time scored 33 goals in 55 league matches. In the Bundesliga, the club finished the season a remarkable fourth. Hitzfeld contributed five goals in 22 matches.[5]
After three years with Stuttgart, Ottmar Hitzfeld returned to what by then had become his second home, Switzerland. There he played from 1978 to 1980 with FC Lugano before joining FC Luzern, where he finished his playing career in 1983, aged 34.
Career as coach
Switzerland
Ottmar Hitzfeld got his first coaching position with FC Zug where he stayed for a year. In 1984 he followed an offer to coach FC Aarau where he settled for four years. His tenure there was crowned with his first title as coach, the 1988 Swiss Cup. By then he had attracted also the attention of the major Swiss club Grasshopper in Zürich. Between 1988 and 1991 he gained there another four trophies, starting with a repeat of his cup victory by the end of his first season.[6] The next year he followed up with the double before finishing his engagement with the defence of the Swiss Championship in 1991.[7]
Borussia Dortmund
In 1991 Ottmar Hitzfeld received an offer from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, which had just finished the season tenth. In his first year he and his assistant Michael Henke, with whom he would collaborate for the next 13 years, took the team to second spot in the league, securing a UEFA Cup place. The following season Dortmund reached the finals of this competition, but both matches were lost against Juventus. In 1995 he gained his first German championship with Dortmund, their first trophy since the 1989 German Cup, and Hitzfeld's first trophy in Germany. 1995–96 saw a successful defence of the title, but the great triumph had to wait for another year: in 1997 Dortmund finished third in the league, but reached the Champions League final where another encounter with Juventus was due. This time Borussia prevailed 3–1 in Olympic Stadium Munich against the team from northern Italy which featured Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, and Christian Vieri amongst others.
For his success Ottmar Hitzfeld was rewarded for the first time with the "World Coach of the Year" award,[2] but as frictions with the team had come to a head he was promoted out of the firing line to the position of sports manager with the club, where he witnessed his successor Nevio Scala taking the team to Intercontinental Cup honours.
Bayern Munich
In 1998 Ottmar Hitzfeld was hired by Germany's most successful club, FC Bayern Munich. In his first year he led the club to renewed championship glories, winning the league title by a record margin. The club lost the German Cup final to Werder Bremen on penalites, though. Most important was their run to the Champions League final. The final is remembered for the dramatic Manchester United comeback inside the injury time period. Trailing 1–0 Manchester scored two goals in stoppage time, condemning Bayern to a stunning defeat.
In the next season domestic success was improved upon with Bayern winning the double. After winning by a record margin last season Bayern won on a heartbeat finish this season. Hitzfeld's team depended on the neighbours from Unterhaching to beat Leverkusen on the last day play to secure the title. The cup final was won against Werder, the team which beat Bayern in the previous final. In the Champions League Bayern was stopped in the semi-final by eventual winners Real Madrid.
2000–01 Ottmar Hitzfeld led Bayern not only to the league championship hattrick, but once again into the Champions League final, defeating Manchester United and defending champions Real Madrid en route. This time the side from Munich prevailed, albeit it took a penalty shoot-out against Valencia. This made Ottmar Hitzfeld only the second coach after Ernst Happel to win the major European trophy with two different teams. Again, he found himself recognized with the honour of "World Coach of the Year",[7] but this time he remained in control over his team in the ensuing Intercontinental Cup final against Boca Juniors from Buenos Aires. A sole goal by Ghanean defender Samuel Kuffour in extra-time made it an evening to celebrate for the general and his team. By then the team had a tendency to put in lacklustre performances and in the end had to make do with third place in the league.
In the season 2002–03 Bayern once more dominated German football, claiming the league title four game days before the end of the season. With a 3–1 win over Kaiserslautern Ottmar Hitzfeld's team secured another double. When this was followed by a season of less impressive football, yielding no title, the club renounced the remaining year of the contract of the 55 year old coach.
Ottmar Hitzfeld had an offer to take over the reins of the German national team, but preferred to take a break from the game.[8] On February 1, 2007, following the sacking of Felix Magath, he returned to Bayern Munich. Hopes that he might lead Bayern to another championship,[9] despite trailing by eight points with 15 games remaining were not fulfilled, though. Eventually Bayern finished fourth, thereby failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade.
A multi-million spending spree before the new season helped Hitzfeld to lead the club to a new phase of domestic dominance, winning the DFB-Ligapokal, the DFB-Pokal, and the 2007-08 championship. After several high wins and lots of draws Bayerns 2007-08 UEFA Cup campaign ended in the semi-final with a humbling 4–0 defeat by eventual winner Zenit St. Petersburg. During the season Hitzfeld had announced that he would not be available for another season at the helm. Jürgen Klinsmann became his successor at Bayern.
Swiss national team
Ottmar Hitzfeld took over as coach of the Swiss national team in summer 2008.[1] Switzerland qualified for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and won the opening match 1–0 against the heavily favoured European Champions, Spain. Although Switzerland beat the eventual champions, Spain, they went on to lose 1-0 against Chile and get a 0-0 draw against Honduras which eliminated their chances of qualifying from the group. Switzerland was the only team to have beaten Spain during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
A group of FC Luzern supporters were so enraged by Hitzfeld's failure to select David Zibung for the Swiss national team that they sent him an open invitation to attend matches with the supporters. [10]
Language skills (Swiss German dialect)
Additionally to his native German, he can speak fluent English. Due to his growing up close to the Swiss border, where Alemannic German dialects are spoken, and then playing and coaching in Switzerland for decades, he is also able to speak the Swiss German variant of German, especially that of Basel (Basel German), as he has demonstrated in numerous interviews in the Swiss media. In fact, he rarely spoke Standard German prior to taking over at Dortmund and had to first learn it properly, therefore being viewed as a Swiss by the local Dortmund media.
Statistics
Team Nat From To Competition Record G W D L Win % F.C. Zug 
1983 1984 Swiss Super League Swiss Cup Total F.C. Aarau 1984 1988 Swiss Super League 126 54 36 36 42.9% Swiss Cup Europe Total Grasshopper Club Zürich 1988 1991 Swiss Super League Swiss Cup Europe Total Borussia Dortmund 
1991 1997 Bundesliga 208 111 52 45 53.4% DFB Cup 15 7 2 6 46.7% Europe 19 11 4 4 57.9% Total 242 129 58 55 53.3% Bayern Munich 1998 2004 Bundesliga 204 128 41 35 62.7% DFB Cup 29 25 2 2 86.2% Europe 76 38 24 14 50.0% Total 309 191 67 51 61.8% Bayern Munich 2007 2008 Bundesliga 49 30 12 7 61.2% DFB Cup 7 6 1 0 85.7% Europe 18 7 7 4 38.8% Total 74 43 20 11 58.1% Switzerland 2008 Present Friendlies 13 4 6 3 30.8% International competition 21 10 6 5 47.6% Total 34 14 12 8 41.1% Total Career Honours
As player
- 2 × Swiss Super League: 1971-1972, 1972-1973
- 1 × Swiss Cup: 1975
As manager
- 1 × Swiss Cup: 1985
- Grasshopper
- 2 × Swiss Super League: 1989-1990, 1990-1991
- 2 × Swiss Cup: 1989, 1990
- 1 x Swiss Supercup 1989
- 1 × UEFA Champions League: 1996–97
- 2 × Fußball-Bundesliga: 1994–95, 1995–96
- 2 x DFB-Supercup 1995; 1996
- 1 × UEFA Champions League: 2000–01
- 5 × Fußball-Bundesliga: 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2007-08
- 3 × DFB-Pokal: 1999–00, 2002-03, 2007-08
- 1 × Intercontinental Cup: 2001
- 4 x DFB Ligapokal: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007
Individual honours
- 1 Top scorer of Switzerland (1973 with 18 goals)
- 2 World Coach of the Year (1997 and 2001)
- UEFA Coach of the Year 2001
- German Football Manager of the Year 2008
- Voted Bayern Munich's greatest coach ever[11]
- Rated the best Bundesliga-coach of all time[12]
References
- ^ a b c "Ottmar Hitzfeld" (in German). weltfussball.de. 2008. http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/trainer/92/hitzfeldottmar/aufeinenblick.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ a b "Ottmar Hitzfeld, General a.D." (in German). bundesliga.de. May 17, 2008. http://www.bundesliga.de/de/liga/news/2007/index.php?f=93145.php. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "Ottmar Hitzfeld". transfermarkt.de. July 2008. http://www.weltfussball.de/spieler_profil/ottmar-hitzfeld/. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "1973/74 bis 1982/83" (in German). FC Basel Official Website. 2008. http://www.fcb.ch/articles/show/historyDetail//10339/5/63/10/44/49. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ a b "Ottmar Hitzfeld" (in German). fussballdaten.de. 2008. http://www.fussballdaten.de/spieler/hitzfeldottmar/. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "Nationale Erfolge" (in German). Grasshopper Club Zürich Official Website. 2008. http://www.gcz.ch/index.php?id=47. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ a b "Ottmar Hitzfeld". WorldSoccer. September 2, 2003. http://www.worldsoccer.com/profiles/player_profile_profile_55736.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "Ottmar Hitzfeld turns down offer to become Germany coach". German News. July 1, 2004. http://www.germnews.de/dn/2004/07/01. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ "Hitzfeld return restores dreams of glory". 2007-02-01. http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de/en/news/news/2007/10662.php. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
- ^ JCBT invitation to Ottmar Hitzfeld to attend the game against Basel
- ^ "Fans name greatest Reds of all time". The official FC Bayern Munich Website. 2005-06-01. http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de/en/news/news/2005/04283.php. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
- ^ "Grosse Ehre für Ottmar Hitzfeld" (in German). football.ch. 2009-06-24. http://www.football.ch/de/start.aspx?vNews=1&newsID=16. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
Awards and achievements Preceded by
Marcello LippiUEFA Champions League Winning Coach
1996-97Succeeded by
Jupp HeynckesPreceded by
Vicente Del BosqueUEFA Champions League Winning Coach
2000-01Succeeded by
Vicente Del BosqueWest Germany squad – 1972 Summer Olympics 
Switzerland squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Benaglio • 2 Lichtsteiner • 3 Magnin • 4 Senderos • 5 von Bergen • 6 Huggel • 7 Barnetta • 8 Inler • 9 Frei (c) • 10 Nkufo • 11 Behrami • 12 Wölfli • 13 Grichting • 14 Padalino • 15 Yakin • 16 G. Fernandes • 17 Ziegler • 18 Bunjaku • 19 Derdiyok • 20 P. Schwegler • 21 Leoni • 22 Eggimann • 23 Shaqiri • Coach: Hitzfeld
Ottmar Hitzfeld managerial positions FC Aarau – managers Kerr (1933–34) · Hammerlindl (1934–35) · Stocker (1934–35) · Kiss (1934–35) · Schrenk (1935–36) · Volentik (1936–38) · Sutter (1938–39) · Heine (1939) · Kerr (1939–40) · Heine (1940–41) · Suter (1941–42) · Heine (1942–43) · F. Sobotka (1943–46) · Ludwig (1946–48) · Longrin (1948–50) · Schneeberger (1950–51) · Weber (1950–51) · Schaer (1950–51) · Presch (1951–53) · Imhof (1953) · Czischek (1953–54) · Kerr (1954–55) · Isler (1955–56) · Scheurer (1956–58) · Macho (1958–59) · Imhof (1959–60) · Schulz (1960–62) · Schauer (62) · Beck (1962–65) · Schauer (65) · Bürgler (1965–67) · Stehrenberger (1967–70) · Olk (1970–72) · J. Sobotka (1972–73) · Čebinac (1973–75) · Tschui (1975–77) · Stehrenberger (1977–82) · Stehrenberger & Fischli (1982) · Čebinac (1982–84) · Hitzfeld (1984–88) · Kostka (1988–89) · Frank (1989–90) · Wehrli (1990–91) · Strasser (1991–92) · Fringer (1992–95) · Trümpler (1995–98) · Strasser (1998–99) · Dries (1999–2000) · Fringer (2000–02) · Geiger (2002–04) · Rueda (2004) · Egli (2004–05) · Geiger (2005–06) · Schönenberger (2006) · Zahner (2006–07) · Komornicki (2007) · Gress (2007) · Komornicki (2007–09) · Saibene (2009) · Andermatt (2009–10) · Jakovljević (2010–)
Switzerland national football team – managers Déjerine (1905–10) · Referee's Commission (1910–24) · Duckworth & Kürschner & Hogan (1924) · Müller (1934) · Rappan (1937–38) · Rappan (1942–49) · Tschirren & Andreoli & Minelli (1949–50) · Andreoli (1950) · Baumgartner & Tschirren & Kielholz (1950–53) · Rappan (1953–54) · Rüegsegger (1954) · Baumgartner & Kielholz (1954–55) · Baumgartner & Kielholz & Spagnoli (1955–58) · Sekulić & Rüegsegger & Vescori (1958–60) · Hahn (1958–59) · Rappan (1960–63) · Sobotka & Quinche & Guhl (1964) · Foni (1964–67) · Ballabio (1967–69) · Hussy (1970) · Maurer (1970–71) · Michaud (1972–73) · Hussy (1973–76) · Blažević (1976) · Vonlanthen (1977–79) · Walker (1979–80) · Wolfisberg (1980–85) · Jeandupeux (1986–89) · Wolfisberg (1989) · Stielike (1989–91) · Hodgson (1992–95) · Jorge (1995–96) · Fringer (1996–97) · Gress (1998–99) · Zaugg (2000) · Trossero (2000–01) · Kuhn (2001–08) · Hitzfeld (2008–)
Categories:- 1949 births
- Living people
- People from Lörrach
- German footballers
- FC Basel players
- AC Lugano players
- VfB Stuttgart players
- FC Aarau managers
- German football managers
- 2010 FIFA World Cup managers
- Borussia Dortmund managers
- FC Bayern Munich managers
- Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Olympic footballers of West Germany
- Germany B international footballers
- FC Luzern players
- Switzerland national football team managers
- Fußball-Bundesliga managers
- Expatriate football managers in Switzerland
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