Otto Rehhagel

Otto Rehhagel is a former footballer and current coach from Germany. As one of the most successful managers from Germany, Otto Rehhagel has been a part of over 1000 Bundesliga games. Rehhagel began his playing career at TuS Helene Altenessen, in 1952. He played at the club for 8 seasons before moving onto Rot-Weiss Essen in 1960.

Four seasons later, Rehhagel joined Hertha Berlin SC at the start of the Bundesliga, and stayed at the club until 1965. He then moved to FC Kaiserslautern where he finally retired as a player in 1972.

Coaching Career

Otto Rehhagel began his coaching career with Kickers Offenbach. However, it was with Borussia Dortmund that he truly gained notoriety, following a 0-12 loss.

He move onto Arminia Bielefeld and then on to Fortuna Dusseldorf before finally moving to Werder Bremen in 1981. It was at Bremen that Rehhagel actually did most of his good work, staying as their coach for 14 seasons. A small unit was transformed into a fantastic football team that played powerful football and had an unbeatable defense. Werder Bremen, led by Rehhagel, became one of the top-most teams in the Bundesliga, going ahead of Hamburger SV, their muc-hated rivals. Rehhagel had a number of second placed finishes, many to Bayern Munich, getting him the name Otto II or VizeAdmiral.

However, in 1988, Rehhagel led Bremen to the league title, a feat he repeated in 1993. He also won two German Cup titles (1991 and 1994) as well as the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1992.

Rehhagel’s team threw up some incredible players like Rudi Voller, Marco Bode, Mario Basler, and Andreas Herzog. The Werder Bremen team in 1988 conceded just 22 goals in the season, a record that stood for 20 years. Rehhagel’s 14 year stint at Werder Bremen is also the second longest consecutive managerial stint in the Bundesliga, surpassed by Volker Finke at SC Freiburg.

Rehhagel did leave Werder Bremen and moved to Bayern Munich in 1995-96. He led the German giants to 6th place in the league as well as the semi-finals in the UEFA Champions League. Bayern Munich revamed their team with Rehhagel bringing in the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann and Andreas Herzog coming in. However, Rehhagel wasn’t in line with Bayern Munich’s style.

Rehhagel caused a number of issues in the Bayern Munich team, and just three weeks before th finals of the 1996 UEFA Cup, he was fired for a poor league finish. Franz Beckenbauer came in to take Bayern to the title.

Rehhagel moved onto Kaiserslautern in 1996, and stayed on for 5 seasons. He came in when the team had just gotten relegated and proceeded to cause a change in fortunes. A terrible season in the Bundesliga was followed by a revival that saw them earn promotion again, in 1998. The UEFA Cup was a different story as Kaiserslautern were pounding opponents with brilliant defence and extraordinary stamina and energy, winning 6 games in injury time. They came back to the Bundesliga with vengeance and won the 1998 Bundesliga title, becoming the first team to win the league as a promoted team.

However, there was intense in-fighting within the team that led to Rehhagel’s dismissal as their coach, in 2000.

The Greek Struggle

In 2001, Otto Rehhagel was appointed as the coach for the Greek national team. He took the team to Euro 2004, beating Spain and Ukraine along the way. The team began the tournament as 100-1 outsiders and went on to beat France and the Czech Republic on the way to the finals against Portugal. Greece were crowned European Champions after beating their more illustrious neighbours, making Rehhagel the first foreign coac to guide a national team to European glory.

The Greeks reverted to Rehhagel’s variation of the Catenaccio system and eked out results with extremely energetic midfielders full of running. Rehhagel modified his coaching methodologies from the attacking prowess of Werder Bremen, to a defense-goverened game with the Greeks.

Greece failed to qualify for the 2006 world cup, losing to a group that had Ukraine and Turkey. However, they returned for the European Championships in 2008, in a bit to defend their title. Ending qualification with the highest points of any team, most were certain of a successful title defence. However, it wasn’t to be.

At the 2010 World Cup qualification, Greece ended the group in second place, behind Switzerland, and went on to play Ukraine in a two-legged playoff. A 1-nil win in Donetsk was followed by a nil-nil draw in Athens, allowing Greece entry into the South African edition.

The World Cup began with a loss to South Korea and after beating Nigeria 2-1, Greece lost to Argentina and were eliminated from the World Cup. Rehhagel decided to announce his resignation from the national team job at the end of the tournament.