 Lattek in the early 1970s | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1935-01-16)16 January 1935 | ||
| Place of birth | Bosemb,Germany | ||
| Date of death | 31 January 2015(2015-01-31) (aged 80) | ||
| Place of death | Cologne,Germany | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| SSV Marienheide | |||
| Bayer Leverkusen | |||
| VfR Wipperfürth | |||
| 1962–1965 | VfL Osnabrück | 70 | (34) |
| Managerial career | |||
| VfR Wipperfürth | |||
| 1965–1970 | West Germany (assistant coach) | ||
| 1970–1975 | Bayern Munich | ||
| 1975–1979 | Borussia Mönchengladbach | ||
| 1979–1981 | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| 1981–1983 | Barcelona | ||
| 1983–1987 | Bayern Munich | ||
| 1991 | 1. FC Köln | ||
| 1992–1993 | Schalke 04 | ||
| 2000 | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Udo Lattek (16 January 1935 – 31 January 2015) was a German professionalfootball player and coach.
Lattek is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game, having won 15 major titles, most famously withBayern Munich. He also won major trophies withBorussia Mönchengladbach andBarcelona. In addition to these clubs, his managerial career saw him coachBorussia Dortmund,Schalke 04 and1. FC Köln before his retirement from the game. Alongside the ItalianGiovanni Trapattoni and PortugueseJosé Mourinho, he is the only coach to have won all three major European club titles, and—along with Mourinho—the only one to do so with three clubs.
Lattek was born inBosemb,East Prussia,Germany (now Boże, Poland).[1] While Lattek was preparing for a career as a teacher, he played football with SSV Marienheide,Bayer Leverkusen and VfR Wipperfürth. In 1962, he joinedVfL Osnabrück. He spent his first season at the club in the first division (the northern division of the "Oberliga") and the remainder of his time in the second division, as the club did not qualify for the new Bundesliga at its inception 1963. He played primarily as a centre forward and became known for his heading ability. He scored 34 goals in 70 league matches between 1962 and 1965.
Early in 1965, Lattek was prematurely released from his playing contract to join the German football associationDFB as a youth team coach alongsideDettmar Cramer, one of the assistants to head coachHelmut Schön. In this role he was also part of the coaching staff which led Germany into the final of the1966 World Cup.[2]
In March 1970, Lattek took over the reins ofBayern Munich as successor of the Croatian,Branko Zebec. He was recommended to the club byFranz Beckenbauer, however his appointment was controversial as he had never previously coached a club side. To a team already boasting Beckenbauer,Gerd Müller andSepp Maier, Lattek added the young talents ofPaul Breitner andUli Hoeneß, ushering in a period of near dominance for the Bavarian club. Lattek led Bayern to three consecutive league titles, a first in German football history, as well as the German Cup. In 1974 they became the first German team to win theEuropean Champions Cup, defeatingAtlético Madrid in the final, in a replay. It was the first of three consecutive European Cup successes for the club (although Lattek was only there for the first of them).
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Six players from the Bayern side were also part of the West German side that won the1974 World Cup and1972 European Championship. A poor start to the 1974–75 domestic season saw Lattek's tenure come to an end, with Bayern replacing him withDettmar Cramer, who was also recommended to the club by Beckenbauer. According to Lattek, after telling club president Wilhelm Neudecker that, given the club's poor domestic form changes were necessary, Neudecker replied, "Correct. You're sacked."
At the beginning of the 1975–76 season, Lattek succeededHennes Weisweiler atBorussia Mönchengladbach, where he stayed until 1979. This spell saw him win two more German titles, in addition to achieving further European success with victory in the 1979UEFA Cup final, defeatingRed Star Belgrade. A third consecutive championship for him, which would have been a record fourth consecutive league championship for the club, eluded Mönchengladbach when they came second in the race to1. FC Köln, managed by Lattek's predecessorHennes Weisweiler, by the narrowest of margins, that of goal difference.
In 1977, the club reached the European Cup final againstLiverpool in Rome, which they lost 3–1. Liverpool declined to participate in the ensuing matches for theIntercontinental Cup, so Borussia took their place against South American championsBoca Juniors in the final. After drawing 2–2 in Argentina, Mönchengladbach lost the home match inKarlsruhe 3–0.
At the end of that season, Lattek quit Mönchengladbach and spent two undistinguished years withBorussia Dortmund. In his time at Mönchengladbach he had managed legendary strikerJupp Heynckes (226 goals in 375 league matches / 51 goals in 64 European competition matches), along with great Danish forwardAllan Simonsen and such national team stalwarts asBerti Vogts,Rainer Bonhof,Uli Stielike, andHerbert Wimmer. At Dortmund he lacked that wealth of talent, and at the time his new club did not have the resources or the patience to develop it. His 15-year-old son also died fromleukaemia at that time, leading him to seek a different working challenge as a distraction from the grief in his personal life.[1]
In 1981, Lattek was appointed successor toHelenio Herrera at Spanish clubBarcelona. He led the club to theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup in 1982, defeatingStandard Liège 2–1 in the final. He is the only coach to lead three clubs to three different major European trophies.[3] On the field Barcelona was led byMigueli,Alexanco,Rexach,Asensi,Quini, the GermanBernd Schuster, and the Dane,Allan Simonsen, Lattek's star signing from his old club, Mönchengladbach. In the second seasonDiego Maradona, then 22 years of age, was signed for a record transfer fee. However Barcelona did not win any domestic titles that year, and Lattek was replaced at the end of the 1982–83 season by the World Cup winning Argentine coach,César Luis Menotti, who it was hoped would bring out the best in Maradona.
Lattek got his next managerial appointment from his former playerUli Hoeneß, who was by then in charge as commercial manager with his old side, Bayern Munich. Lattek succeeded the Hungarian coachPal Csernai. In the next few years he won another league championship hat-trick with the club and two more national cups, the 'double" in 1986 being the fourth in German football history. However Bayern lost the 1987 European Champions Cup final 2–1 toFC Porto. Great players during his second stint with Bayern includedKarl-Heinz Rummenigge,Lothar Matthäus,Klaus Augenthaler,Dieter Hoeneß, the Danish midfielderSøren Lerby and the Belgian national goalkeeperJean-Marie Pfaff. As it had been with Borussia Mönchengladbach, his former player Jupp Heynckes followed him as coach here, too.
After the heady days at Bayern, Lattek retired for a few years. In 1991, he joined1. FC Köln as Sporting Director[4] and was head coach for one match as coach, where he achieved a home draw against Bayern. The rest of the season he spent with the club as technical manager. 1992 he returned once more to the dugout and ledSchalke 04 through the first half of the season. His last match in Munich was a 1–1 draw against Bayern.
Lattek officially retired and took up a role as TV commentator and newspaper columnist with the national broadsheetDie Welt and the bi-weekly sports magazineKicker. He was tempted out of retirement by his old team, Borussia Dortmund. The club had won the 1997 Champions League title, but was in panic mode towards the end of the 1999–2000 season, just one point above the relegation zone with five matches left to play. For what is speculated to be an extremely lucrative sum, as much as 250,000 Euros, the then 65-year-old Lattek took on the role of savior. His magic did the trick, two wins, two draws and only one defeat – against Bayern Munich – were enough to keep the club in the league. His last match was a 3–0 away triumph againstHertha BSC in front of a crowd of 75,000. At Dortmund he left a working base for his successorMatthias Sammer, who two years later at the age of 34 became the youngest coach to manage a German team to the league championship.
Lattek retired having won 14 major trophies.[4] He still holds the record for having managed teams to the most Bundesliga titles, six with Bayern Munich and two with Borussia Mönchengladbach.
He lived in a nursing home inCologne,[3] where he was known for his continuous fondness of beer ("all great coaches have enjoyed a drink"). In 2012, Lattek suffered a stroke.[5] Lattek later suffered fromParkinson's disease anddementia,[2] and died on 31 January 2015.[6][7] On the news of his death,Franz Beckenbauertweeted: "Sad news: The great Udo Lattek is dead. Rest in peace, my friend."[8]
| Team | From | To | Record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | Ref. | |||
| Bayern Munich | 13 March 1970[9] | 2 January 1975[9] | 223 | 137 | 46 | 40 | 061.43 | [9] |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | 1 July 1975[10] | 30 June 1979[10] | 176 | 87 | 48 | 41 | 049.43 | [10] |
| Borussia Dortmund | 1 July 1979[11] | 10 May 1981[11] | 72 | 32 | 15 | 25 | 044.44 | [11] |
| Barcelona | 1 July 1981[12] | 3 March 1983[12] | 76 | 42 | 18 | 16 | 055.26 | [13] [14] |
| Bayern Munich | 1 July 1983[9] | 30 June 1987[9] | 188 | 116 | 45 | 27 | 061.70 | [9] |
| 1. FC Köln | 30 August 1991[15] | 4 September 1991[15] | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 000.00 | [15] |
| Schalke 04 | 1 July 1992[16] | 16 January 1993[16] | 19 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 031.58 | [16] |
| Borussia Dortmund | 14 April 2000[11] | 30 June 2000[11] | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 040.00 | [11] |
| Total | 760 | 422 | 181 | 157 | 055.53 | — | ||
Bayern Munich
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Barcelona
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | European Cup Winning Coach 1973–74 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
