Ottmar Hitzfeld
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ottmar Hitzfeld | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Bayern Munich (Manager) | ||
Ottmar Hitzfeld (born 12 January 1948 in Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg) is a German former football player and manager.
With a total of 18 major titles, mostly accumulated in his tenures with Grasshopper Club Zürich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the trained mathematics teacher is not only the most successful German coach, but also one of the most outstanding in the history of the game. Twice he was elected "World Coach of the Year". Also, besides the legendary Ernst Happel, he is the only manager to win the European Cup/UEFA Champions League with two different clubs.
He has most recently served in his second stint with FC Bayern Munich.
Career as player
Ottmar Hitzfeld played 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. 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 of Switzerland. In 1975 also he won the cup with Basel.
He retained his amateur status in order to be able to participate in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. There he played, amongst others also 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 of 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 the five goals he made in the course of the tournament.
In 1975, the 26 year old Hitzfeld accepted an offer by the then German second division side VfB Stuttgart. After two years, in which Hitzfeld scored 33 goals in 55 league matches - in one match he even scored six goals, which is still a record - the team achieved promotion to the first division, the Bundesliga. There the club finished the season a remarkable fourth. Hitzfeld contributed to this five goals in 22 matches.
After three years with Stuttgart 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
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 amassed there another four trophies, starting with a repeat of his cup victory by the end of his first season. The next year he followed up with the double before finishing his engagement with the defence of the Swiss Championship in 1991.
Dortmund
In this year Hitzfeld received an offer from the then rather unsuccessful Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, a club which had its last successes in the 1950s and 60s and which had just finished the season 10th. In his first year he - and his assistant Michael Henke, whom he would collaborate with for the next 13 years - took the team to second spot in the league, securing a UEFA Cup place. By the end of the following season the club had reached the finals of this competition, but both matches were lost against highly fancied Juventus. By 1995 he for the first time took Dortmund to the pinnacle of German football, their first trophy since the 1966 Cup Winners Cup, and their fourth overall win of the Championship. 1995-96 saw a successful defence of the title, but the great triumph had to wait for another year: in 1997 Dortmund only finished third in the league but reached the Champions League final where another encounter with Juventus lurked. This time Borussia prevailed 3-1 in Olympic Stadium Munich against the team from northern Italy which had such highly ranked players like Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps and Christian Vieri in their ranks.
For his success Hitzfeld was rewarded for the first time with the "World Coach of the Year" award, 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 could witness his successor Nevio Scala taking the team to Intercontinental Cup honours, a success which prolonged the tenure of the Italian only marginally, if at all.
Munich
By 1998 Ottmar Hitzfeld was ready to take on a new challenge. Germany's most successful club was in search for a coach who could consolidate an array of stars to a competitive unit. Hitzfeld, who by then had acquired the nickname "the general" would not disappoint. In his first year he took the club to renewed championship glories, winning the league title and being finalists in the German Cup. Most important was their run to the Champions League final. This final is remembered for the dramatic Manchester United comeback inside a frantic and remarkable stoppage time period which saw United scoring two goals, which condemned Bayern to a stunning defeat.
In the next season domestic success was improved upon with Bayern winning the double whilst in the new European campaign Bayern was stopped in the semi-final by eventual winners Real Madrid.
2000-01 Hitzfeld led Bayern not only to the league championship hattrick, but once again into the Champions League final, with successfully completing a revenge mission against Manchester United and defending champions Real Madrid en route. This time the side from Munich prevailed, albeit it took a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Valencia. This made 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", but this time he was also allowed to preside 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 by winning the double, but the team again performed less than artfully. When this was followed by a season of even 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, and doubtless numerous other calls - but preferred to take a break from the game to which he has contributed so much.
On 1 February 2007, following the sacking of Felix Magath there, he once more returned to Bayern Munich. Nevertheless, hopes that he might help Bayern to secure a berth in the Champions League came to no fruition.
A multi-million spending spree before the new season helped Hitzfeld to lead the club to a new phase of dominance in the national league and a successful UEFA Cup campaign, ended in the semi-final in 2007/08. Bayern was able to win the DfB-Ligapokal, the DfB-Pokal, and most recently, the 2007/08 1. Bundesliga Championship with Ottmar Hitzfeld.
Chelsea FC
In July 2008 he will become coach of Chelsea.
Managerial stats
- aHe won 2 games in the 3rd Qualification Round.
- bBayern Munich were already eliminated from the DFB Cup.
| Team | Year | Regular Season | Domestic Cup | Europe | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | D | L | Pts | Finish | W | L | Win% | Result | W | D | L | Result | |||
| BVB | 91/2 | 20 | 12 | 6 | 52 | 2nd | 1 | 1 | .500 | 3rd Round | - | - | - | - | |
| BVB | 92/3 | 18 | 5 | 11 | 41 | 4th | 3 | 1 | .750 | 4th Round | 6 | 0 | 5 | Lost to Juventus in UEFA Cup Final Round. | |
| BVB | 93/4 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 39 | 4th | 1 | 1 | .500 | 2nd Round | 4 | 3 | 1 | Lost to Inter Milan in UEFA Cup Quarter Final. | |
| BVB | 94/5 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 49 | 1st | 1 | 1 | .500 | 2nd Round | 6 | 1 | 2 | Lost to Juventus in UEFA Cup Semi Finals. | |
| BVB | 95/6 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 68 | 1st | 3 | 1 | .750 | QF | 2 | 3 | 3 | Lost to Ajax in UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals. | |
| BVB | 96/7 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 63 | 3rd | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1st Round | 9 | 1 | 1 | Won UEFA Champions League. | |
| BVB Total | 111 | 52 | 35 | 312 | 9 | 6 | .600 | 21 | 8 | 8 | - | ||||
| FCB | 98/9 | 24 | 6 | 4 | 78 | 1st | 5 | 1 | .833 | Finalist' | 6 | 3 | 2 | Lost to Manchester United in UEFA Champions League Final | |
| FCB | 99/00 | 22 | 7 | 5 | 73 | 1st | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Won Cup | 8 | 5 | 3 | Lost to Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals. | |
| FCB | 00/1 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 63 | 1st | 1 | 1 | .500 | 2nd Round | 14 | 3 | 2 | Won UEFA Champions League. | |
| FCB | 01/2 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 68 | 3rd | 4 | 1 | .800 | SF | 8 | 5 | 1 | Lost to Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League Quarter-Finals | |
| FCB | 02/3 | 23 | 6 | 5 | 75 | 1st | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Won Cup | 2a | 2 | 4 | Exit UEFA Champions League at the 1st Group Stage. | |
| FCB | 03/4 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 68 | 2nd | 3 | 1 | .750 | QF | 2 | 4 | 2 | Lost to Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League Round of 16. | |
| FCB Total | 128 | 41 | 35 | 425 | 25 | 4 | .862 | 40 | 22 | 14 | - | ||||
| FCB | 06/7 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 19 | 4th | 0 | 0 | - | -b | 1 | 1 | 2 | Lost to AC Milan in UEFA Champions League Quarter-Finals. | |
| FCB Total | 8 | 2 | 5 | 26 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Combined FCB Total | 136 | 43 | 40 | 451 | 25 | 4 | .862 | 41 | 23 | 16 | |||||
| Total | 247 | 95 | 75 | 836 | 34 | 10 | .773 | 61 | 31 | 24 | |||||
Honours
As Player
- 2 Swiss Super League (With FC Basel in 1972 and 1973)
- 1 Swiss Cup (With FC Basel in 1975)
- 1 Top scorer of Switzerland (1973 with 18 goals)
As Coach
- 3 Swiss Cup (With FC Aarau in 1985; with Grasshopper Club Zürich in 1989 and 1990)
- 2 Swiss Super League (With Grasshopper Club Zürich in 1990 and 1991)
- 7 German champions (With Borussia Dortmund in 1995 and 1996; with FC Bayern Munich in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008)
- 3 German Cups (With FC Bayern Munich in 2000, 2003 and 2008)
- 2 UEFA Champions League (With Borussia Dortmund in 1997; with FC Bayern Munich in 2001)
- 1 Intercontinental Cup (With FC Bayern Munich in 2001)
- 2 World Coach of the Year (1997 and 2001)
