Otto Rehagel is a German footballer 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 Rehagel played in four different German clubs as a right-back, and also coached ten German clubs and the Greek national team.
Carier start
Otto Rehagel 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 at the age of ten he entered the academy at the tiny club Helen Altenessen, where he spent his entire youth until in 1956 he signed a professional contract with him. Until 1960, Rehagel played for his native club, and only when he was 22 years old, he was noticed by Roth-Weiss Essen, who was in the Regional League. So Otto Rehagel entered professional football at a higher level.
Go to Roth-Weiss Essen
Otto Rehagel, 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 more powerful clubs from the Second and even from the First Burdesliga began to look at him. And in 1963, when Otto was already 25 years old, he moved to the Berlin Hertha, in which, however, he did not stay for long. Otto Rehagel, whose photographs gradually appeared in local sports publications, was not a star - he was just a reliable footballer, able to perform his tasks efficiently on the right flank of the defense.
The game in Hertha
In the new club, Otto Rehagel, a German footballer who was inferior in class to many compatriots, was still able to gain a foothold in the first team and spent 53 matches in two years, marking them with six goals. The growth of the football player did not stop there - in 1965 the Kaiserslautern called for him, with which Otto connected the rest of his career, having spent as much time in the new club as he had not spent in any previous one.
New home in Kaiserslautern
It was in the Kaiserslautern that Rehagel was able to gain a foothold for a long time, and did not leave the club until the end of his professional career. Seven years he played for the club, having entered the field 148 times and scoring 17 goals. Naturally, at the very beginning he played much more often, but 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 more promising newcomers. And in 1972, at the age of 34, Rehagel announced that he was hanging boots on a nail and ending his football career. But he did not plan to part with football.
Team appearances
As mentioned earlier, Rehagel was not a star, a world-class footballer, so he was not called to the national team either. When he first moved to Roth-Weiss Essen, he was called to the semi-professional team of Germany several times, but Otto never received a call to his main team during his entire career.
Coaching career
34-year-old Rehagel ended his career as a football player, but did not leave football - he decided to continue to work in this area. The new profession that Otto Rehagel tried out is the coach. He immediately became at the helm of “Saarbrücken”, but stayed there only one season - the results of the team were far from perfect. Rehagel was able to bring only three victories, so he was fired. In the summer of 1973, Otto decided not to rush and went as an assistant coach to Kickers to gain experience, but in March of the following 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 he spent some time without work. Only in March 1976 he was taken to the Bremen Werder Bremen, but worked there only until the end of the season - already in the summer of that year he was signed by the Dortmund Borussia. There he spent less than two seasons, winning 29 matches out of 74, after which he was fired. Rehagel spent a few more months looking for work, and only in October 1978 did he receive an invitation from Arminia. He spent an impressive year there, 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, this attracted attention to himself, and in April 1981, Rehagel for the second time headed the Werder Bremen. 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 led them to victory in the German Championship twice, won the German Cup twice, and once won the prestigious tournament - the European Champions Cup (which now exists as the Champions League). Of the 609 matches, Werder Bremen Rehagel won 322, and lost only 131. Naturally, he could not stay there all the time. In 1995, it was time to go up a notch - Otto became the coach of the strongest club in Germany and one of the strongest clubs in the world, Bayern Munich. His results there were quite good - but only by the standards of Werder Bremen. “Bavaria” the results that the coach showed were few, and he was fired before the end of the season. After Bavaria, Rehagel 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 leading the team out of the Second Bundesliga in the first, and in the second having gained a sensational victory in the First Bundesliga. However, after incredible successes, a recession followed, and already in the fall of 2000 Rehagel left his post.
He found a new job only in August 2001 and took under his command the Greek team. And here Rehagel managed to make a sensation. In 2004, a tiny team without any titles and prospects won the European Championship, defeating the most powerful teams of the continent. But, as in the case of the Kaiserslautern, success was followed by a recession, and the Greeks have not been able to achieve such a result since then. Until 2010, Otto remained at the helm of the team, admitting 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 team and left the sport. In 2012, he returned briefly to head Hertha - but this experience was the worst in Rehagel’s entire career. He won only 3 of 8 matches, so in the summer of 2012 he finally left the big sport.