Felix Magath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kingjeff (talk | contribs) at 21:54, 14 June 2012 (→‎Managing career). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Felix Magath
Felix Magath
Personal information
Full name Wolfgang-Felix Magath
Date of birth (1953-07-26) 26 July 1953 (age 70)
Place of birth Aschaffenburg, West Germany
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Offensive Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 VfL Wolfsburg (coach)
Youth career
1960–1964 VfR Nilkheim
1964–1972 TV 60 Aschaffenburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1972–1974 Viktoria Aschaffenburg
1974–1976 1. FC Saarbrücken 76 (29)
1976–1986 Hamburger SV 306 (46)
International career
1977–1986 West Germany 43 (3)
Managerial career
1995–1997 Hamburger SV
1997–1998 1. FC Nuremberg
1998–1999 Werder Bremen
1999–2001 Eintracht Frankfurt
2001–2004 VfB Stuttgart
2004–2007 Bayern Munich
2007–2009 VfL Wolfsburg
2009–2011 Schalke 04
2011– VfL Wolfsburg
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Wolfgang-Felix Magath (born 26 July 1953) is a former German football central midfielder and current manager of VfL Wolfsburg.

Personal life

Magath is the son of a former Puerto Rican soldier in the United States Army stationed in Aschaffenburg and a German mother. Both were abandoned by his father in 1954, when he returned to his homeland. The adolescent Magath first heard from his father when he was 15 years old, after he wrote a letter to Puerto Rico. In 1999, he visited Puerto Rico and finally met his father. They established a relationship and started visiting each other twice a year ever since.

Playing career

Born near Aschaffenburg, Magath started his career playing for local club Viktoria Aschaffenburg. From 1974–76, he played for 1. FC Saarbrücken, at that time in the second division, before moving to Hamburger SV in the top flight.

He would spend the following ten seasons with Hamburg, and from his debut in 1976 to his retirement he scored 46 goals in 306 games in the first division.

In 1983, Magath led Hamburg to success in the European Cup, scoring the single goal in the final against Juventus FC; in 1980–81, he netted a career-best (in the first division) 10 goals, helping his side to a runner-up league spot, as Hamburg also won the league in three years during that time.

He also represented the German national team at many international events, including the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups, helping Germany land in second place both times. Magath made his debut on 30 April 1977, in a 2–1 friendly win with Yugoslavia, and went on to amass 43 caps, with three goals.

Managing career

After retiring as a player, Magath began coaching in October 1995 for his former club Hamburg. He was sacked at the end of the 1996–97 season.

After a stint at Eintracht Frankfurt, his reputation in the German league grew with his performances as coach of VfB Stuttgart. He was then appointed as manager of FC Bayern Munich on 1 July 2004.[1] In his first season, Magath was able to lead his team to victory in both the league and cup, completing the double, a feat which would be repeated in 2005–06, the first time ever in the competition's history.

However, after a slow start to the 2006–07 season, with the team mired in fourth place which would not qualify them for the Champions League, Magath was sacked on 31 January 2007.[2] In June, he signed a contract at VfL Wolfsburg,[3] leading the Wolves to play in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup and the following season's Champions League, the latter as league champions for the first time.

On 7 August 2006, Magath revealed that the Puerto Rico Football Federation had approached him with an offer to assume the position of national team director in preparation for the Caribbean commonwealth's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign in South Africa.

"I have an offer from Puerto Rico, Magath told Focus magazine. The president of the Puerto Rico Football Federation asked me whether I could work as team director in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup."

Magath went on to admit that he was tempted, although he ultimately turned it down. Before 2008–09 had ended, he agreed on a four-year contract with FC Schalke 04 as both head coach and Director of Football, starting on 1 July 2009.[4]

On 16 March 2011, Magath was sacked by Schalke.[5] Only 24 hours later, on 17 March, he once again signed with VfL Wolfsburg, whom he led to the national championship in 2009.

Reputation

As a manager, Magath quickly gained respect and became notorious for his hard, grinding training methods, laying heavy emphasis on discipline, fitness and conditioning. Players gave him nicknames like “Saddam” (Saddam Hussein) or “Quälix”, a mash of his first name Felix and the German verb “quälen” (to torture).[6]

Statistics

Club

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1974–75||rowspan="2"|1. FC Saarbrücken||rowspan="2"|2. Bundesliga||38||12|||||||||||| |- |1975–76||38||17|||||||||||| |- |1976–77||rowspan="10"|Hamburger SV||rowspan="10"|Bundesliga||30||1|||||||||||| |- |1977–78||33||4|||||||||||| |- |1978–79||21||4|||||||||||| |- |1979–80||32||5|||||||||||| |- |1980–81||33||10|||||||||||| |- |1981–82||28||8|||||||||||| |- |1982–83||34||4|||||||||||| |- |1983–84||34||5|||||||||||| |- |1984–85||32||3|||||||||||| |- |1985–86||29||2|||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3382||75|||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5382||75|||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics end

International statistics

National team statistics

[7] Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1977||2||0 |- |1978||0||0 |- |1979||0||0 |- |1980||6||1 |- |1981||11||1 |- |1982||5||0 |- |1983||0||0 |- |1984||2||0 |- |1985||8||1 |- |1986||9||0 |- !Total||43||3 |}

International goals

Score and results list West Germany's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 10 September 1980 St. Jakob-Park, Basel   Switzerland 2–0 3–2 Friendly
2. 14 October 1981 Praterstadion, Vienna  Austria 2–1 3–1 1982 World Cup qualifier
3. 27 March 1985 Ludwigsparkstadion, Saarbrücken  Malta 2–0 6–0 1986 World Cup qualifier

Managerial record

As of 14 June 2012
Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Hamburger SV II 1 July 1993 5 October 1995 64 22 15 27 034.38
Hamburger SV 5 October 1995 18 May 1997 69 28 19 22 040.58
1. FC Nuremberg 1 September 1997 30 June 1998 29 16 8 5 055.17
Werder Bremen 22 October 1998 8 May 1999 26 9 7 10 034.62
Eintracht Frankfurt 27 December 1999 29 January 2001 37 15 5 17 040.54
VfB Stuttgart 23 February 2001 30 June 2004 147 72 37 38 048.98
Bayern Munich 1 July 2004 31 January 2007 132 85 25 22 064.39
VfL Wolfsburg 15 June 2007 30 June 2009 85 46 18 21 054.12
Schalke 04 1 July 2009 16 March 2011 78 42 16 20 053.85
VfL Wolfsburg 18 March 2011 Present 42 16 7 19 038.10
Total error 351 159 201 049.51

Honours

Player

Club

Country

Manager

References

  1. ^ "Magath answers Bayern call". UEFA.com. 19 May 2004. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
  2. ^ "Hitzfeld installed as Bayern axe Magath". The Guardian. 3 January 2007.
  3. ^ "Magath handed power at Wolfsburg". UEFA.com. 31 May 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
  4. ^ "Magath to sign four-year contract as general manager and head coach". Schalke 04. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2009. [dead link]
  5. ^ "Schalke part company with Felix Magath". Schalke 04. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  6. ^ Michael Schreiber (26 May 2003). ""Quälix" wird zum Pädagogen". Sport.ard. Retrieved 11 February 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Arnhold, Matthias (30 October 2004). "Felix Wolfgang Magath - International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 26 May 2012.

External links

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Felix_Magath&oldid=497618425"