Biography of Ottmar Hitzfeld

Ottmar Hitzfeld

Ottmar Hitzfeld (born in Lörrach, Baden, West Germany, January 12, 1949) was a football player and coach who now trains German Switzerland. He never played in the main team like FV Lörrach, FC Basel, VfB Stuttgart, FC Lugano, and FC Luzern.
Previous club he's ever dealt with is FC Zurich, FC Aarau, Grasshopper Club Zürich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.



Career as player

Born in 1949 as the youngest of five children, Ottmar Hitzfeld started playing football at the end of 1960 with FV TuS Stetten and Lörrach in Germany is lower leagues before he attracted the attention of the Swiss first division team FC Basel. He joined the club, located on the banks of another river Rhine, in 1971. With this club forward won the Swiss championship in 1972 and 1973, in the last season even contribute as a top striker in Switzerland. In 1975 he also won the cup in Basel.
In 1973, while playing in Basel, he graduated from college as a mathematics teacher nearby Lörrach and sports.
He maintains an amateur status in order to participate in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. There he played, among others, with Uli Hoeness, Bayern Munich and then the players and general managers who will hire him as coach in the late 1990s. One of the highlights of this tournament is the first meeting between the national teams of West and East Germany on the soccer field. West Germany was losing the match 2-3 and thus failed to reach the semifinals. In this game Hitzfeld scored five goals in one of these Tournamen.


In 1975, 26 years Ottmar Hitzfeld received an offer by side VfB Stuttgart and the German second division. On the side of Swabia, he was part of a "breach of 100 goals" legendary (the difference between these goals a season 100:36) and in one game against SSV Jahn Regensburg he scored six goals. After two years, in 1977, the team achieved promotion to first division Bundesliga. Hitzfeld has now scored 33 goals in 55 league games. In the Bundesliga, the club finished a remarkable fourth season. Hitzfeld contributed five goals in 22 games.
After three years in Stuttgart, Ottmar Hitzfeld returned to what by then had become his second home, Switzerland. There he played with FC Lugano 1978-1980 before joining FC Luzern, where he ended his playing career in 1983, aged 34.


Career as coach


Switzerland


Ottmar Hitzfeld got his first coaching position with FC Zug where he lived for a year. In 1984 he followed an offer to coach FC Aarau where he remained for four years. Crowned his tenure there his first title as a coach, 1988 Swiss Cup. At that time he also has attracted the attention of the Swiss club Grasshopper Zürich main. Between 1988 and 1991 he earned another four trophies, starting with the repetition of the cup victory at the end of his first season. The next year he followed up with a double before finishing his engagement with the defense of the Swiss Championship in 1991.


Borussia Dortmund


In 1991 Ottmar Hitzfeld received an offer from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, who had just completed the tenth season. In his first year he and his assistant Michael Henke, with whom he would collaborate over the next 13 years, taking the team to second place in the league, securing UEFA Cup place. Dortmund the following season reached the final of this competition, but lost the second match against Juventus.


In 1995 he received the first German champion with Dortmund, their first trophy since the 1989 German Cup, and Hitzfeld's first trophy in Germany. 1995-96 saw his successful defense of the title, but the victory will have to wait another year: in 1997, Dortmund finished third in the league, but reach the Champions League final, where another meeting with Juventus has matured. This time Borussia won 3-1 in Munich's Olympic Stadium against a team from northern Italy featuring Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, and Christian Vieri, among others.
Ottmar Hitzfeld rewarded for their success for the first time with "World Coach of the Year", but as the friction with the team came to a head he was promoted out of the firing line for the position of sport manager with the club, where he witnessed his successor Nevio Scala took Borussia Dortmund for the award Intercontinental Cup.


Bayern Munich


In 1998 Ottmar Hitzfeld was employed by Germany's most successful club, FC Bayern Munich. In his first year he led the club to championship glory refurbished, won the league title with a record margin. The club lost the German Cup final to Werder Bremen on penalites, though. The most important thing is to run them into the Champions League final. Final is remembered for a dramatic comeback Manchester States in the period of injury time. Trailing 1-0 Manchester scored two goals in stoppage time, condemning Bayern less amazing.


The improved success next season with Bayern winning the domestic double. After winning by a record margin last season, Bayern won the heart rate to finish the season. Hitzfeld's team depends on the neighbors of Unterhaching to beat Leverkusen to play the final day to secure the title. Won the cup final against Werder, the team that beat Bayern in the final before. Bayern in the Champions League semi-final stop on by eventual winners Real Madrid.

Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld 2000-01 led not only to the league championship hat-trick, but once again the Champions League final, beating defending champion Manchester United and Real Madrid on the way. This time of the Munich side wins, although it took a penalty shootout against Valencia. This makes the second coach Ottmar Hitzfeld only after Ernst Happel to win a European trophy with two different teams. Once again, he found himself recognized with the honor of "the world's best coach",  but this time he remained in control of his team in the next Intercontinental Cup final against Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires. Single goal by defender Samuel Kuffour Ghanean in extra time to make a night to celebrate the general and his team. At that time the team has a tendency to put in lackluster performances and eventually had to make do with third place in the league.


In the 2002-03 football season, Bayern Germany once again dominated, claiming the league title game four days before the end of the season. With a 3-1 victory over Kaiserslautern Ottmar Hitzfeld team secured another double. When this was followed by the football season is less impressive, yielding the title, leaving the club in the remaining 55-year-old contract.


Ottmar Hitzfeld has an offer to take over control of the German national team, but would rather take a break from the game.  On February 1, 2007, following the dismissal of Felix Magath, he returned to Bayern Munich. Hope that he might cause Bayern for another championship,  although it lags by eight points with 15 games remaining unfulfilled, though. Bayern eventually finished fourth, thus failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade.


A fun multi-million expenditure before the new season to help Hitzfeld led the club to a new phase of domestic dominance, winning the DFB-Ligapokal, DFB-Pokal, and the 2007-08 championship. After winning several high and many interesting Bayerns 2007-08 UEFA Cup semi-final ended with a humbling 4-0 defeat by eventual winners Zenit St Petersburg. During the season, Hitzfeld has announced that he would not be available during the season lead. Jürgen Klinsmann became his successor at Bayern.


Swiss national team


Ottmar Hitzfeld takes over as coach of the Swiss national team in the summer 2008.Switzerland qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and won the opening match 1-0 against highly favored European Champions, Spain. Although the Swiss champion finally, the Spanish, they then lost 1-0 against Chile and earn a 0-0 draw against Honduras which eliminates their chance to qualify from the group. Switzerland is the only team to have beaten Spain during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
A group of supporters of FC Luzern Hitzfeld was so angry that the failure to choose David Zibung for the Swiss national team that they sent an open invitation to attend the game with the supporters.