Ernst Happel

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Ernst Happel
Happel in a commemorative banner
Personal information
Full name Ernst Franz Hermann Happel
Date of birth (1925-11-29)29 November 1925
Place of birth Vienna, Austria
Date of death 14 November 1992(1992-11-14) (aged 66)
Place of death Innsbruck, Austria
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
1938–1942 Rapid Wien
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1942–1954 Rapid Wien 177 (8)
1955–1956
RC Paris
 42 (9)
1956–1959 Rapid Wien 63 (17)
Total 282 (34)
International career
1947–1958 Austria 51 (5)
Managerial career
1962–1969 ADO Den Haag
1967 San Francisco Gales
1969–1973 Feijenoord
1973–1974 Sevilla
1974–1978 Club Brugge
1977–1978 Netherlands
1979
Harelbeke
1979–1981 Standard Liège
1981–1987 Hamburger SV
1987–1991 Swarovski Tirol
1992 Austria
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Austria (as player)
FIFA World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 1954
Representing  Netherlands (as manager)
FIFA World Cup
Runner-up 1978
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
Team Austria in 1958 with the following players – from left to right, standing; Walter Horak, Ernst Happel, Karl Koller, Alfred Körner, Paul Halla, Walter Schleger; crouched: Helmut Senekowitsch, Gerhard Hanappi, Rudolf Szanwald, Franz Swoboda and Johann Buzek.

Ernst Franz Hermann Happel (29 November 1925 – 14 November 1992) was an Austrian football player and manager.

Happel is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time,

Swedish runner-up campaign in 1958.[4] He was the first of the six managers to have won the European Cup with two clubs (Carlo Ancelotti, Ottmar Hitzfeld, José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jupp Heynckes being the other five). He is also one of six managers–– along with Ancelotti, Mourinho, Giovanni Trapattoni, Tomislav Ivić, and Eric Gerets
–– to have won top-flight domestic league championships in at least four countries.

Playing career

Club level

Happel started his professional playing career at

Austrian Championship title six times. He was chosen in Rapid's Team of the Century in 1999.[5]

The two years in between Happel played for

Racing Club de Paris in France
.

International level

Happel made his debut for

1958 World Cup. His last international was a September 1958 match against Yugoslavia. He earned 51 caps and scored 5 goals.[7]

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, Happel went on to become one of the greatest coaches of all time. He won the league title in four countries. He also took two clubs to gold in the European Champions' Cup (now the

Intercontinental Cup in 1970, and the Dutch championship
in 1971.

At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Happel was coach of

the final against the Argentina national team
. Always a man of few words, Happel's pre-match pep talk is said to have consisted of just one sentence: "Gentlemen, two points." The Dutch, however, lost the final 3–1 in extra time.

During his career as coach, Happel worked for several clubs, including

German champions in 1982 and 1983, German Cup
winner 1987).

In 1983, he won the European Cup again, 13 years after the triumph with Feyenoord, this time with

Real Madrid; and Pep Guardiola, who won with FC Barcelona and Manchester City
.

In 1987, Happel returned to Austria as coach of

Austrian Championship title twice (1989 and 1990) before becoming coach of the Austria national team
in 1992.

Personal life

All youth players of

Hitler Jugend in 1938. Ernst reported he refused to sing along to their songs until he was kicked out of their gatherings.[8]

He was conscripted and dispatched to the

Soviet occupation zone with the excuse that he had seen from afar his house was still standing and that he'd started playing at Rapid Vienna again.[8]

Ernst Happel never married. He was described by one of his ex-players Birger Jensen as a bit of a loner, always accompanied by his cigarettes and cognac.[9] He nevertheless would meet up with Austrian friends, enjoying card games, pool and darts.[9]

Death

Plaque at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna

A heavy smoker for most of his adult life, Happel died of lung cancer in 1992 at age 66. In the wake of his death, the biggest football stadium in Austria, the Praterstadion in Vienna, was renamed the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. Four days after his death, Austria played against Germany and reached a 0–0 draw; Happel's cap lay on the bench during the entire match.

Managerial statistics

Club

*Dates of first and last games under Happel not dates of official appointments

National teams

Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Netherlands 31 August 1977 25 June 1978 12 8 2 2 066.67
Austria 1 January 1992 14 November 1992 9 2 3 4 022.22
Total 21 10 5 6 047.62
*Dates of first and last games under Happel not dates of official appointments

Honours

Player

Rapid Wien[10]

Austria

Manager

ADO Den Haag[11]

Feyenoord[12]

Club Brugge[13]

Standard Liège[16]

  • Belgian Cup: 1980–81

Hamburger SV[17]

Swarovski Tirol[18]

Netherlands

Individual

References

  1. ^ "Ernst Happel – Legendary football manager". The Sporting.blog. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  2. ^ Stephan Uersfeld (6 August 2013). "Greatest Managers, No. 14: Ernst Happel". ESPN. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Ernst Happel: The 'Weird Man' Who Conquered European Football and Helped Shape the Modern Game". Sports Illustrated. 8 August 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Na história da Copa do Mundo, nenhum treinador estrangeiro foi campeão (in World Cup history, no foreign manager has ever been a champion)". Yahoo. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  5. ^ Team of the Century Archived 11 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine – Rapid Archive
  6. ^ "Ernst Happel". Olympedia. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  7. ^ Appearances for the Austria National Team – RSSSF
  8. ^ a b "125 Jaar Club Brugge: het fantastische 'volgasvoetbal' van Ernst Happel, 19/11/1925-14/11/1992 (4) – RW". De Witte Duivel (in Dutch). 22 November 2016. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  9. ^ a b "Ernst Happel (29/11/1925-14/11/1992), Weense Weltmeister bij Club Brugge, aflevering 2". De Witte Duivel (in Dutch). 10 November 2017. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. ^ "SK Rapid Wien – Titles, trophies and places of honor".
  11. ^ "Historie". De Haagse Voetbalhistorie.
  12. ^ "Feyenoord, een topclub zonder geld". 6 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Ernst Happel Trainerscarrière". Club Brugge. 26 September 2017.
  14. ^ "1978 final highlights: Liverpool 1-0 Club Brugge". UEFA.
  15. ^ "Voetbal – UEFA Cup – 1975/1976 – Home". Sportuitslagen.
  16. ^ "Palmares". Standard de Liège.
  17. ^ "Hamburger SV – Titles, trophies and places of honor".
  18. ^ "FC Swarovski Tirol – Titles, trophies and places of honor".
  19. ^ "FIFA World Cup 1978". Archived from the original on 17 May 2018.
  20. ^ "1978 Tournoi de Paris". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  21. ^ "France Football have ranked the 50 greatest managers of all time". GiveMeSport. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  22. ^ "Greatest Managers, No. 14: Ernst Happel". ESPN FC. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ernst Happel.
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