Ottmar Hitzfeld

Born in Lörrach, Hitzfeld started playing football in the late 1960s with TuS Stetten and FV Lörrach in the lower German leagues, before he captured the attention of Swiss first division team Basel. He joined the club, located on the other bank of the Rhine, in 1971. With this club the forward won the Swiss championship in 1972 and 1973, in the latter season even contributing as the top striker in Switzerland. In 1975, he also won the cup with Basel. In 1973, while playing at Basel, he graduated from nearby Lörrach College as a teacher of mathematics and sports. He retained his amateur status to be able to participate in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. There, he played amongst others with Uli Hoeneß, the later Bayern Munich player and general manager who would hire him as coach in the late 1990s. One of the highlights of this tournament was the first encounter between the national sides of West and East Germany on the football pitch. West Germany lost this match 2–3, and thus failed to reach the semifinals. In this match, Hitzfeld scored one of his five goals in the tournament. In 1975, the 26-year-old Hitzfeld accepted an offer by the then German second division side VfB Stuttgart. At the Swabian side, he was part of a legendary "100 goal offense" (the goal difference that season being 100:36) and in one match against SSV Jahn Regensburg he scored six goals, still the record for a 2. Bundesliga player. After two years, in 1977, the team achieved promotion to the first…

1983–1991: Coaching in Switzerland

During the summer of 1983, Hitzfeld signed his first coaching contract with SC Zug, in the second tier of Swiss football. The team ended the 1983–84 season as Nationalliga B champions. Thus Hitzfeld and his team achieved immediate promotion to the Nationalliga A, for the first and only time in the clubs history. In 1984, he followed an offer to coach Aarau, where he settled for four years. His tenure there was crowned with his first title as coach, the 1985 Swiss Cup. Soon he attracted also the attention of the major Swiss club Grasshoppers in Zürich. Between 1988 and 1991, he gained another four trophies there, starting with a repeat of his cup victory by the end of his first season. The next year, he followed up with the double before finishing his engagement with the defence of the Swiss Championship in 1991.

1991–1998: Borussia Dortmund

In 1991, Hitzfeld became manager of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. In his first year, he and his assistant Michael Henke, with whom he would collaborate for the next 13 years, took the team to second spot in the league, securing a 1992–93 UEFA Cup place. The following season, Dortmund reached the finals of this competition, but both matches were lost against Juventus. In 1995, he gained his first Bundesliga title with Dortmund, their first trophy since the DFB-Pokal in 1989, and Hitzfeld's first trophy in Germany. In 1995–96, he had a successful defence of the title, but the great…

Hitzfeld was born in Lörrach in the valley of the Wiese in southwest Germany, close to the Swiss border. He grew up there and is the youngest of five children. Hitzfeld said that when he first left Bayern in 2004 he 'felt burnt out' and 'was a bit depressed', and 'it took me two years to recover.' He then had 'the best years at Bayern' on his return. He stated his views that people should not get too excited about things, not get too down about things, and treat each situation individually. His uncle was the World War II general Otto Hitzfeld. Hitzfeld is married to Beatrix Hitzfeld. They have one child and three grandchildren. Hitzfeld's a devout Roman Catholic. The Ottmar Hitzfeld Arena, the highest altitude stadium in Europe, is named after him.

Player

Basel

Swiss Super League: 1971–72, 1972–73 Swiss Cup: 1975

Individual

Swiss Super League top goalscorer: 1972–73 (18 goals, shared with Ove Grahn)

Manager

SC Zug

Nationalliga B: 1983–84 Aarau

Swiss Cup: 1984–85 Grasshopper

Swiss Super League: 1989–90, 1990–91 Swiss Cup: 1988–89, 1989–90 Swiss Super Cup: 1989 Borussia Dortmund

Bundesliga: 1994–95, 1995–96 DFB-Supercup: 1995, 1996 UEFA Champions League: 1996–97 UEFA Cup runner-up: 1993 Bayern Munich

Bundesliga: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2007–08 DFB-Pokal: 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2007–08 DFB/DFL-Ligapokal: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007 UEFA Champions League: 2000–01; runner-up: 1998–99 Intercontinental Cup: 2001

Individual

IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 1997, 2001 World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 1997 UEFA Coach of the Year: 2001 German Football Manager of the Year: 2008 ESPN 13th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013 World Soccer 17th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013 France Football 19th Greatest Manager of All time: 2019