Sepp Piontek

Sepp Piontek
	Piontek in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Josef Emanuel Hubertus Piontek
Date of birth	5 March 1940 (age 84)
Place of birth	Breslau, Nazi Germany (now Wrocław, Poland)
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
1949–1958	VfL Germania Leer
Senior career*
Years	Team
1958–1960	VfL Germania Leer
1960–1972	Werder Bremen
International career
1961–1962	West Germany U23
1965–1966	West Germany
Managerial career
1971–1975	Werder Bremen
1975–1976	Fortuna Düsseldorf
1976–1978	Haiti
1978–1979	FC St. Pauli
1979–1990	Denmark
1990–1993	Turkey
1993–1995	Bursaspor
1995–1996	Aalborg BK
1997–1999	Silkeborg IF
2000–2002	Greenland
2004	Greenland
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Josef Emanuel Hubertus "Sepp" Piontek (born 5 March 1940) is a German former football player^[1] and manager.

Playing career

Born in Wrocław during WW2. Piontek started his playing career with VfL Germania Leer. Between 1963 and 1972, the full-back played 203 Bundesliga matches with 14 goals^[2] for SV Werder Bremen (he previously registered 75 matches and one goal with the side in Oberliga Nord (1960–1963), prior to the creation of Bundesliga), adding six caps (no goals) for the West Germany national team.^[3]

Coaching career

After retiring he managed, in Germany, Werder Bremen (1971–1975), and later Fortuna Düsseldorf (1975–1976) and FC St. Pauli (1978–1979). In 1979, Piontek became Danish national team coach after having previously managed Haiti (1976–1978). He sat through 115 international matches, leading Denmark to their first ever World Cup participation in the 1986 tournament. His period as national team coach came just after the introduction of professional players in the national team, and under his reign the Denmark team became known as "Danish Dynamite". He quit as Denmark coach in April 1990 after the Danish national team failed to qualify for 1990 FIFA World Cup, and later coached Turkey from an advice by fellow German and Piontek's teacher Jupp Derwall^[4] from May 1990 to 1993, in which though failed to qualify for neither UEFA Euro 1992 nor 1994 FIFA World Cup, helped sparking a massive revival in Turkish football fortunes which would be witnessed by the time Piontek left.^[5]

In the 1990s, Piontek returned to Denmark, where he coached Danish clubs Aalborg BK and Silkeborg IF, and subsequently worked with the Greenland national team. He currently earns a living as a lecturer.

Honours

Player

Werder Bremen

Bundesliga: 1964–65, runners-up 1967–68
DFB-Pokal: 1961

Manager

Individual

Guerin Sportivo Manager of the Year: 1983

References

^ "Piontek, Josef" (in German). kicker.de. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
^ Arnhold, Matthias (1 October 2015). "Josef Emanuel Hubertus 'Sepp' Piontek - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
^ Arnhold, Matthias (1 October 2015). "Josef "Sepp" Piontek - International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
^ McCarra, Kevin (7 October 2003). "German foundation beneath Turkey's rise to greatness". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
^ Mamrud, Roberto (1 October 2015). "Josef "Sepp" Piontek - International Matches as Coach". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 9 October 2015.