Nico Kovacs refers to those athletes whose names the history of football will never forget. He was a good, productive midfielder, and today he is the coach of Bayern - a real German favorite, a club that is one of the best in Europe.
And now it’s worth paying a little attention to him, telling about his biography, career and achievements.
early years
Nico Kovacs was born into a family of Croatian guest workers in West Berlin. For some time he studied football at the Rapide Wedding youth club, but began his professional career with a team called Hertha-03 Zelendorf.
There he spent two years. During this time, footballer Nico Kovacs played 25 matches and scored 7 goals. But then he moved to the Berlin Hertha, which then performed in the 2nd Bundesliga. In this club, Nico spent five years, having played 148 matches and scoring 16 goals.
In 1996, the footballer signed a contract with Leverkusen Bayer. This was a significant event for him, because the transition to this club for Niko Kovacs became the door to the First Bundesliga.
Further career
The debut in the national championship took place on August 17. The midfielder then came on as a substitute in the match against Borussia. In his first season, he played 32 matches and scored 3 goals.
The next two seasons were not very successful for him. He basically came on as a substitute, and missed several matches altogether because of the injury he received in the game against Stuttgart. In just three years, Nico Kovacs played 77 games and scored 8 goals. It is worth noting that in “Bayer” he played with his younger brother named Robert.
In 1999, Kovacs moved to Hamburg. Over the two years of his career, he played 55 matches and scored 12 goals. Then he received an offer from Bavaria. Of course, Nico agreed to go to the Munich club, where, incidentally, Robert was already playing.
However, there he did not receive as much playing time as he wanted. In two years he played only 34 matches and scored only 3 goals. So Nico decided to return to Hertha. There he played until 2006 (75 matches and 8 goals).
Kovacs last club was the Red Bull Salzburg. The midfielder played in the Austrian team until 2009. In total, he spent 53 matches there and scored 9 goals. It is interesting that Nico Kovacs played regularly in the main team, even despite his age.
In the national team of Croatia
Nico Kovacs began playing for the national team in 1996. The debut match was a friendly match with the national team of Morocco. Then the midfielder entered the field in three more selected games, but did not get to the final round because he did not recover from the injury.
But in the following years, a career went uphill. Moreover, in 2004, Nico became the captain of the national team. It was he who brought the team to the final tournament of the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany. Kovacs entered the field in 9 games out of 10, and scored 2 goals. Unfortunately, he left the match with Brazil in the 40th minute because of an injury.
And although Croatia did not leave the group for all the championships of those years, Nico Kovac remained its captain until the end of his career. Moreover, he is in the top 3 best players of the national team in terms of the number of matches played.
Coaching
Hanging the boots on a nail, Nico Kovacs decided to immediately take under his leadership the junior team “Red Bull Salzburg”. He worked on them for two years, and in 2011 he became an assistant to the head coach of the main team. In 2013, he and his brother Robert led the Croatian youth team. And then - and the main one. He managed it from 2013 to 2015.
In the spring of 2016, Kovacs headed the Frankfurt Eintracht. He managed to literally save the club from getting into the second division. Moreover, in his first full season, Nico brought the team to the middle of the rating: Eintracht took 11th place. And a year later, he rose to the 8th.
In 2018, Eintracht achieved an amazing result under the leadership of Kovacs - he won the German Cup. For the team, this was the first trophy in 30 years.
But the Croatian specialist decided to leave the Frankfurt club. To date, Nico Kovacs is the coach of Bayern.
Not even three months have passed before he heads the Munich club in which he once played. But from the numerous interviews of the players and the coach himself, we can conclude that the team has a great atmosphere. Football players train hard and currently play every three days.
The chairman of the Bavarian board, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, says that in Nico Kovacs the club got the coach that was needed. Yes, and many fans believe that with him the Munich team will take the Champions League.
The last nuance that interests many is the personal life of a star trainer. She is very secretive. Only one thing is known: Niko Kovacs has a wife. Her name is Kristina, and they met in early childhood - the girl lived in the house next door.