German footballer Otto Rehhagel: biography and achievements

Otto Rehhagel is a German football player and coach who has already completed his professional career and moved away from football. This year he turned 78 years old, so the decision looks quite logical. Otto Rehhagel performed in four different German clubs as a right-back, and also trained ten German clubs and the Greek national team.

Carier start

Otto Rehhagel was born on August 9, 1938 in Germany. The Second World War did not allow him to start playing football from an early age, but already at the age of ten he entered the academy at the tiny club "Helen Altenassen", where he spent all his youth until in 1956 he signed a professional contract with him. Until 1960, Rehhagel played for his home club, and only when he was 22 years old, he noticed "Rot-Weiss Essen", who was in the Regional League. So Otto Rehhagel entered professional football at a higher level.

Going to "Rot-Weiss Essen"

Otto Rehhagel, whose biography as a football player is not too bright, spent three years in the new club, playing 90 matches and scoring three goals. Gradually, his class grew, so he began to look closely and stronger clubs from the Second and even from the First Burdisliga. And in 1963, when Otto was already 25 years old, he moved to the Berlin "Herta", in which, however, he did not stay long. Otto Rehhagel, whose photographs gradually appeared in local sports publications, was not a star - he was just a reliable football player, able to perform his tasks on the right flank of defense.

Playing in the "Herta"

In the new club, Otto Rehhagel, a German football player who was inferior to many compatriots in the class, managed to gain a foothold in the first team and in two years held 53 matches, marking six goals in them. The growth of the football player did not stop there - in 1965 he was called to the "Kaiserslautern", with which Otto linked the rest of his career by spending in the new club as much time as he did in none of the previous ones.

New house in Kaiserslautern

It was in "Kaiserslautern" that Rehhagel was able to gain a foothold for a long time, and no longer left the club until the end of his professional career. Seven years he played for the club, going on the field 148 times and scoring 17 goals. Naturally, at the very beginning he played much more often, but the years made themselves felt, and in his last season Otto practically did not appear on the field - the club gave way to younger, stronger and promising newcomers. And in 1972, at the age of 34, Rehhagel announced that he was hanging out his boots and finishing the career of a football player. But he did not plan to part with football.

National team appearances

As already mentioned earlier, Rehhagel was not a star, a world-class football player, so he was not called to the national team either. When he just moved to Rot-Weiss Essen, he was called several times to the German semi-professional team, but in the main national team, Otto never received a single call in his career.

Coach career

34-year-old Rehhagel finished his football career, but did not quit football - he decided to continue working in this field. The new profession, which was tested by Otto Rehhagel, is a coach. He immediately became at the helm of "Saarbruecken", but stayed there only one season - the results of the team were far from perfect. Rehhagel was able to bring only three victories, so he was fired. In the summer of 1973, Otto decided not to hurry up and went as an assistant coach in the "Kickers" to gain experience, but in March next year the coach was fired, and the German was appointed in his place. Until December 1975, Otto led this club, winning 23 of 60 matches, and after being fired for a while without work. Only in March 1976 he was taken to the Bremen Bremen, but worked there only until the end of the season - in the summer of the same year it was signed by Dortmund's Borussia. There he spent incomplete two seasons, winning 29 games out of 74, after which he was fired. For several months, Rehhagel spent in search of work and only in October 1978 he received an invitation from "Arminia". There he spent an impressive year, winning 15 games out of 37, thanks to which he received an invitation from "Fortune". It was with the Düsseldorf club that Otto managed to win his first trophy - the German Cup. Naturally, by this he attracted attention to himself, and in April 1981 Rehhagel headed the "Werder" for the second time. This time he succeeded and stayed in the club for a very long time. From 1981 to 1995, the German trained Bremen, during which time they twice led them to victory in the German Championships, twice winning the German Cup, and once winning a prestigious tournament - the European Champions Cup (which now exists as the Champions League). Of 609 matches, Werder Rehhagel won 322, and lost only 131. Naturally, he could not stay there all the time. In 1995, it was time to move up a notch - Otto became the coach of the strongest club in Germany and one of the strongest clubs in the world, the Munich "Bavaria". His results there were quite good - but only by the standards of "Werder". "Bavaria" the same results, which showed the coach, it was not enough, and he was fired before the end of the season. After the "Bavaria" Rehhagel took a short break and in the summer of 1996 headed the club, which meant a lot to him - "Kaiserslautern". There he spent four years, in the debut season, having withdrawn the team from the Second Bundesliga in the first, and in the second having gained a sensational victory in the First Bundesliga. However, after incredible success, the recession followed, and in the fall of 2000 Rehhagel left his post. He found a new job only in August 2001 and took the team of Greece under his command. And here Rehhagel managed to make a sensation. In 2004, a tiny team without any titles and prospects won the European Championships, defeating the most powerful teams of the continent. But, as in the case of Kaiserslautern, the success was followed by a decline, and the Greeks have not been able to achieve this result ever since. Until 2010, Otto stayed at the helm of the team, confessing that he could not just leave the team to the mercy of fate. But when he was already 72 years old, he decided that it was time to retire, so he left the national team and left the sport. In 2012, he returned briefly to lead the "Herta" - but this experience was the worst in the whole career of Rehhagel. He won only 3 of 8 matches, so in the summer of 2012 he finally left the big sport.