A well-known German footballer and football coach, and now Bayer’s sports director Rudy (Rudolph), Feller was born in Hanau on April 13, 1960. He gained the greatest fame thanks to performances in the “Werder Bremen” and “Roma”, as well as heading the German national team. More details about the athlete will be discussed later.
First steps in sports
The first coach of the guy was his father Kurt, who achieved good success in football. Later, he began to attend classes at the 1860 Munich Club Children's School. At that time, German Nuber, an eminent footballer who played as part of the Offenbach Kickers, drew attention to a talented boy. It was thanks to the influence of this person that Rudy Feller also became a player in this club in 1975 and took place as a professional athlete. Five years later, the young man moved to Munich, where he began performing as part of the 1860 team.
Club career
In 1982, a young talent moved to Bremen from Bremen, where he was destined to become a real star. For five years of speaking for the club, the striker took part in 137 official matches, in which he scored 97 assists. Of the achievements, three silver in the championships of Germany should be noted, as well as the title of the best scorer of the championship in 1983. Then, German journalists recognized him as the player of the year in the country.
The sports achievements of the striker led to the fact that in 1987 he had on his hands several interesting proposals for pursuing a career abroad. Then the footballer chose the Roman “Roma”. In Italy, the player spent five seasons and became a favorite of the local public. During this time, he played 142 matches and scored 45 goals. From 1992 to 1994, the German played for the French Olympic, with whom he became the country's champion and won the European Cup. Despite the great success abroad, he was always drawn to his homeland, so in 1994 the footballer moved to Bayer, where he played for three years until the end of his player’s career.
Team appearances
In the November month of 1982, Rudy Feller played his first match in a German national team shirt. Be that as it may, at first he was not lucky at large tournaments, because the weak performances of the national team alternated with injuries and the poor form of the striker himself. The greatest success in the German national team was the triumph in the Italian World Cup in 1990. After this championship, the striker wanted to stop playing for Germany, but the new head coach Berti Vogts managed to convince him to play in the upcoming European and World Championships. At the same time, they did not become successful both for the player himself and for the entire national team. If the striker was injured at the Euro in Sweden already in the first match and no longer played (the team won silver medals in the end), then the Germans arrived in the USA in terrible shape.
Coaching career
When moving to Bayer, Rudy Feller signed a contract, according to which, after the player’s career ended, he was automatically offered the position of director for sports development of the team. In this post, he worked for four years. In the summer of 2000, Erich Ribbek resigned from the coaching bridge of the German national team, and Christoph Daum was to be appointed to this position. The latter at that time was a Bayer coach and intended to start working in a new position only a year later. In this regard, until that time, the German Federation asked Feller to temporarily act as coach of the national team. Some time later, Daum was convicted of drug use, so he was forced not only to leave Bayer, but also to say goodbye to the dream of working in the national team. As a result, Rudi Feller remained in this position for the next four years. His greatest success during this time was reaching the finals of the 2002 World Cup. After the failure at Euro 2004, he resigned.
From August to September 2004, the German headed the Roma. January 18, 2005 Feller became the sports director of Bayer. In this position he works now.
Curious facts
Almost all interesting facts from the life of an athlete are related to his professional career. The German is a very popular person in his homeland, because he boasts an impeccable reputation.
Rudy Feller does not have a coaching diploma, but this did not prevent him from achieving certain successes.
In 1982, he became the vice-champion of Europe among the “youth teams”, ten years later - among the national teams, and another ten years later - won the silver medal as the national team coach.
Rudy Feller almost managed to repeat the achievement of Franz Beckenbauer, who became a triumph of the world championships in the status of a football player and a coach.
One of the most unpleasant episodes in his professional career occurred during the 1986 world championship. Then, at some point in the game, the football player approached the referee and showed his hair, which Frank Rikard spat on . The referee did not pay attention to this and did not punish the Dutchman. At the same time, on the videos of that game you can see that such an episode really took place. Rikard later admitted that he did so because the German called him a black monkey in one of the episodes of the match.