Otto Rehhagel is a German former football coach and player.
25 Facts About Otto Rehhagel
2.
Otto Rehhagel served as the trainer of Werder Bremen between 1981 and 1995 and won twice the Bundesliga and in 1992 the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with them.
3.
Otto Rehhagel moved to Rot-Weiss Essen, after the start of the Bundesliga for Hertha BSC, and until 1972 for Kaiserslautern.
4.
In 1980, Otto Rehhagel won his first trophy as a manager, when his Fortuna Dusseldorf side won the German Cup.
5.
However, Otto Rehhagel led Werder Bremen to two German championships in 1988 and 1993, two DFB-Pokal victories in 1991 and 1994, as well as winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992.
6.
Otto Rehhagel's single-minded and occasionally eccentric ways did not mesh at all with Bayern, who quickly felt that Rehhagel was too rural at heart and had no clue about how to interact in the fancy environment of Munich.
7.
Otto Rehhagel's job was taken over by Franz Beckenbauer, who led the team to victory in the 1996 UEFA Cup final, but saw no upturn in form in the last couple of weeks in the Bundesliga, leading Bayern to finished second, as Borussia Dortmund won their second German championship in a row.
8.
Otto Rehhagel injected new energy into the team, which saw Kaiserslautern comfortably getting back into the top-flight in 1997, winning the second division by 10 points.
9.
Otto Rehhagel finished with a record of 87 wins, 39 draws, and 48 losses.
10.
Otto Rehhagel, who was seen as the man most responsible for the team's success, became the first foreign manager ever to win a European Championship and remains the only one to date.
11.
Otto Rehhagel adopted a defensive approach in playing his Greek side, using energetic midfielders to wear down the opponents and the policy of defending in numbers to numb the opposition's attacks.
12.
Otto Rehhagel had the support of the public, despite being considered a maverick by the footballing establishment.
13.
On 30 March 2008, Otto Rehhagel extended his contract with Greece until 2010.
14.
Otto Rehhagel announced his wish to leave his coaching position after the World Cup.
15.
Otto Rehhagel signed for ailing Bundesliga club Hertha BSC and was manager of the club between 18 February 2012 and 30 June 2012.
16.
Otto Rehhagel finished with a record of three wins, three draws, and eight losses.
17.
Otto Rehhagel prefers a grass-roots approach to football, stressing the importance of at least two big, strong headers in central defence.
18.
In defence, Otto Rehhagel usually prefers robustness and height over footballing abilities.
19.
At Kaiserslautern, Otto Rehhagel often kept the young Michael Ballack on the bench as a substitute.
20.
Otto Rehhagel's teams possess a lot of team spirit, most famously the Greece national team, which he turned from a dead-end squad nobody wanted to play for into a must-be-there-at-all-costs team.
21.
Otto Rehhagel is famous for reigniting the careers of older players, such as Manfred Burgsmuller, Mirko Votava, Olaf Marschall or Theodoros Zagorakis.
22.
Otto Rehhagel is notorious for restructuring clubs by making friends with powerful people and using them to eliminate the opposition in order to wield absolute power, preferring the system of a benign dictatorship.
23.
Finally, Otto Rehhagel is considered somewhat of a maverick in Germany.
24.
Famous players associated with Otto Rehhagel include Klaus Allofs, Mario Basler, Marco Bode, Rune Bratseth, Manfred Burgsmuller, Theofanis Gekas, Angelos Charisteas, Traianos Dellas, Dieter Eilts, Andreas Herzog, Marian Hristov, Miroslav Klose, Olaf Marschall, Hany Ramzy, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Wynton Rufer, Thomas Schaaf, Ciriaco Sforza, Rudi Voller, Theodoros Zagorakis, Andreas Brehme and Michael Ballack.
25.
Otto Rehhagel is married to Beate Otto Rehhagel from Steele, Essen since 1963.