Guido Ulrich Buchwald (born 24 January 1961) is a German former professional football player. Throughout his career he played as adefender. He is currently director of football ofStuttgarter Kickers.[1]
The best game of Buchwald's career was the final of the1990 FIFA World Cup victory forWest Germany againstArgentina where he effectively markedDiego Maradona for almost the entire match, earning him the nickname "Diego".[2] His other nickname, 'Bucky' is due to his surname. He was also part of Germany's disappointing1994 FIFA World Cup campaign and collected in his career 76 caps.[3]
Buchwald began his professional football career in 1983 withVfB Stuttgart. He played 325 games in the GermanBundesliga for this club, scoring 28 goals.[4] The low-point of his career was in 1986 when coachFranz Beckenbauer did not include him in his team for theWorld Cup in Mexico. He was however part of the squad which won theWorld Cup in Italy four years later.
His personal highlight in his Bundesliga career was on the last day of play in the 1991–92 season, when he scored the deciding goal againstBayer Leverkusen that won Stuttgart the match and the Championship – just six minutes before the games' end.
In 1994, he signed with the Japanese teamUrawa Red Diamonds before returning to Germany in 1998 to helpKarlsruher SC avoid relegation. He could not save the team and after one more season playing in the second division he retired but stayed with the club as a director of sports.
After a stop with theStuttgarter Kickers (again as director of sports) he went back to Japan where he was managing his old club. He led his team to the "closing" championship.In 2005, won the title on Emperor's Cup.In 2006, he won the title on both J-League and Emperor's Cup.
Buchwald then returned to Germany to become manager ofAlemannia Aachen.After five months on duty he was fired by club management on 26 November 2007.
On 1 November 2010, Buchwald returned to theStuttgarter Kickers as a member of the board responsible for the first team. He took over as interim manager in November 2012 after the sacking ofDirk Schuster, before relinquishing this duty a month later whenGerd Dais was appointed.
