Hennes Weisweiler

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Hennes Weisweiler
Weisweiler in 1970
Personal information
Full name Hans Weisweiler
Date of birth (1919-12-05)5 December 1919
Place of birth Erftstadt-Lechenich, Germany
Date of death 5 July 1983(1983-07-05) (aged 63)
Place of death Zürich, Switzerland
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1948–1952 1. FC Köln 62 (0)
Managerial career
1949–1952 1. FC Köln (player-coach)
1952–1954 Rheydter SpV
1954–1955 Germany (assistant)
1955–1958 1. FC Köln
1958–1964
Viktoria Köln
1964–1975 Borussia Mönchengladbach
1975–1976 FC Barcelona
1976–1980 1. FC Köln
1980–1982
New York Cosmos
1982–1983 Grasshopper
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s.

With 11 titles, 8 with West German clubs, Weisweiler was one of the most successful European coaches of his time. His influence went well beyond. Between 1957 and 1970, at the German Sports Academy in Cologne, Weisweiler was responsible for the training of hundreds of coaches from all over the world. In 2005, the training centre for coaches there was named the Hennes-Weisweiler-Academy in his honour.[1]

Weisweiler is most closely associated with the fortunes of Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1960s and 1970s and with 1. FC Köln in the late 1970s. He is also famous for having developed the talents of many outstanding players, including Günter Netzer, Berti Vogts, Jupp Heynckes, Rainer Bonhof, Allan Simonsen, Uli Stielike, Bernd Schuster, and Pierre Littbarski.

Career

From player to coach in Cologne

The team 1. FC Köln was founded in 1948, and Weisweiler was in the first ever line-up for the club. After the club was promoted in 1949 into the western division of the then five ways split West German first division (Oberliga), he was given the role of player-manager. In this position, which he held until 1952 he played himself 62 times in the league.

In 1955, he returned to the club for another three years as head coach, but left in 1958 to join local rivals Viktoria Köln, which also played in the Oberliga, but the club remained in the shadow of 1. FC. After the foundation of the Bundesliga in 1963, Viktoria played in the second German division. The team achieved its best ever ranking in the last year of Weisweiler's rule of the club.

Years in Mönchengladbach

Weisweiler took over as manager of Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1964. The club's most recent major title had been its win in the German cup in 1960, and it had found itself in the second division after the inception of the Bundesliga, finishing eighth in the year before he arrived.

Weisweiler found a team with young local talent, such as the 19-year-old Günter Netzer and Jupp Heynckes, as well as Bernd Rupp and Herbert Laumen, who later played for the national team. The next year Borussia, the average age of the players a mere 21.5, finished first in its division and gained promotion to the Bundesliga.

Weisweiler and the names of the players of the "Team of the Century"

With the beginning of the new season another 19-year-old,

Ulrik Le Fevre. Decisive also was Weisweiler's ability to find and add further gifted young players, and younger talents including players like Horst Köppel
reached sufficient maturity to hold their own on the highest level. This "youth culture" eventually gave Borussia the nickname they still carry today: the Foals.

At the end of the year the team was crowned champion for the first time, and twelve months later the club from the small town became the first side in Bundesliga history to defend the league title. This was secured with a 4–1 away win in Frankfurt, which enabled Borussia to fend off a late Bayern challenge on the last match day.

The team's first

European Cup final to Ajax
.

In the Bundesliga, only three days after the initial triumph against Inter, the Foals defeated the surprise team of the season, Schalke 04, 7–0, but Bayern Munich won the title and Borussia finished third. Before the season Borussia had let Dietrich, Horst Köppel and Herbert Laumen go, and important parts of the team were crucially weakened, as new players such as Rainer Bonhof and Dietmar Danner were not yet able to fill the gaps.

Weisweiler (right) alongside Berti Vogts, one of his players at Mönchengladbach, 1970

The team was restructured further during the 1972–73 season. This time experienced players such as

Ulrik Le Fevre left the club, replaced by two young Danish forwards Henning Jensen and Allan Simonsen. Jensen made an immediate impact, but the 19-year-old diminutive lightweight Simonsen was immediately regarded a dud by everyone who saw him in one of his rare appearances in the first team. Weisweiler's expressions of belief in Simonson were met with general disbelief, but five years later Simonsen was voted Europe's Player of the Year
.

The season was later overshadowed by the first major conflict of Weisweiler with his star.

Real Madrid was announced. There was still one important match to go: the DFB-Pokal cup final in Düsseldorf, against Weisweiler's original club 1. FC Köln. The atmosphere was emotionally charged, made more so because the coach left Netzer on the bench. Despite a temperature of 35° both teams played attacking football, and on both sides the goalkeepers, Borussia's Wolfgang Kleff and Cologne's Gerhard Welz, were called on to make major saves. Welz even saving a second half penalty by Heynckes. In the short break before extra time Netzer removed his track suit and, it is said[by whom?], told Weisweiler he would be playing. Shortly after the game resumed, Netzer, with only his second possession of the ball, scored a winner for Borussia after a give-and-go with Bonhof. Thus ended one of the major 1970s coach-player associations, with Weisweiler and Netzer, in their last year together with Borussia, winning the DFB-Pokal cup
but only finishing fifth in the league.

With Netzer gone, Weisweiler had more time again for team building. A consolidated Borussia ended the 1973–74 season in second place, Weisweiler again having managed to infuse good new talent, including future international Uli Stielike, into his side.

The newly-found harmony led Weisweiler's team to an all-conquering farewell season. With 86 goals scored, never before and never again achieved by the club, the team cruised to the league championship. In addition, Borussia won its first major European title when, after a 0–0 draw at home, they dismantled

Bayern Munich in their domestic achievements. Weisweiler was succeeded by Udo Lattek
(who had managed Bayern Munich to many of their 1970s triumphs), Lattek led Borussia to consecutive league titles the next two years, and to the European Cup final against Liverpool in 1977, largely with players assembled by Weisweiler.

FC Barcelona

Weisweiler moved in the summer of 1975 to the Spanish top club Barcelona, replacing Rinus Michels, who returned to Holland after four years with the Catalans. When asked why he would leave Mönchengladbach at the height of his influence and success, he said in an interview: "I have shaped a team with my style. Now I'll try to enforce it in Spain."[2]

With FC Barcelona, led by Dutch Stars

Johann Cruyff and Johan Neeskens, Weisweiler's goal was to win the Spanish league and the European Champions Cup. However, from day one Cruyff and Weisweiler came into conflict. "Weisweiler is not the manager of my choice", stated the Dutch playmaker, who guessed he would not under Weisweiler get the freedom to play as he wanted to. In his year at the club Barcelona did not win any titles, and he returned to West Germany to take over 1. FC Köln
, where he had started his managerial career.

FC Köln

Weisweiler (right) with Wolfgang Overath in 1976

Weisweiler managed

Nottingham Forest when a goalless or low-scoring draw in the return home leg would have seen Köln to the final. Köln made it to the German Cup final again in 1980, but this time was defeated by Fortuna Düsseldorf. By then a young Pierre Littbarski
had been eased into the first team as a scoring midfielder-winger. Littbarski did not play in the cup final, but in the role envisioned for him by Weisweiler went on to be a vital part of the West Germany national team that made it to three consecutive World Cup finals, including the 1990 victory.

New York Cosmos

Weisweiler took over as manager of the

New York Cosmos five games into the 1980 North American Soccer League season. The team finished with a 24 and 8 record, and won the Soccer Bowl title, defeating the Fort Lauderdale Strikers 3–0 in the final. The next year the club made it to the final again, this time losing to the Chicago Sting in a shootout after a goalless regulation time and overtime. During Weisweiler's tenure at the Cosmos he managed stars Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, Johan Neeskens and Giorgio Chinaglia
at the veteran stage of their careers.

Grasshopper Club Zürich

Weisweiler managed the Swiss record champion Grasshopper Club Zürich in 1982–83, with whom he won a domestic double that season.

Death

Weisweiler died of a heart attack at his home in Aesch, Switzerland, near Zurich, on 5 July 1983. He was 63.

Coaching record

As of 20 January 2014
Team From To Record
G W D L Win % Ref.
1. FC Köln 1 July 1949[3] 30 June 1952[3] 90 46 16 28 051.11
Rheydter SV 1 July 1952[4] 30 June 1954[4]
1. FC Köln 1 July 1955[3] 30 June 1958[3] 93 45 22 26 048.39
Borussia Mönchengladbach 27 April 1964[5] 30 June 1975[5] 459 237 117 105 051.63 [5]
Barcelona 1 July 1975[6] 30 June 1976[6] 44 24 8 12 054.55
1. FC Köln 1 July 1976[3] 15 April 1980[3] 171 95 36 40 055.56
New York Cosmos
 1 July 1980[7] 31 December 1981[7]
Grasshopper Club Zürich 1 July 1982[8] 5 July 1983[8]
Total 857 447 200 210 052.16 —

Honours

Manager

Borussia Mönchengladbach

FC Köln

New York Cosmos

Grasshopper Club Zürich

individual

References

  1. ^ "Hennes-Weisweiler-Akademie" (in German). Stadt Köln. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Paktiker ohne Probleme". Die Zeit. 13 June 1975. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "1. FC Köln » Trainerhistorie". World Football. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Rheydter SV » Trainerhistorie". World Football. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  5. ^ a b c "Bor. Mönchengladbach" (in German). kicker. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  6. ^ a b "FC Barcelona » Trainerhistorie". FC Barcelona » Trainerhistorie. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  7. ^ a b "New York Cosmos (old) » Trainerhistorie". World Football. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Grasshoppers Zürich » Trainerhistorie". World Football. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  9. ^ "German champion 1970. Weisweiler's masterpiece". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  10. ^ "Spieltag/Tabelle". DFB - Deutscher Fußball-Bund e.V. (in German). 18 March 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  11. ^ "DFB-Pokal 1972/73, Finale". DFB Datencenter (in German). Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  12. ^ "(West) Germany - List of Super/League Cup Finals". RSSSF. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  13. ^ UEFA.com. "Twente-Mönchengladbach | UEFA Europa League 1974/75". UEFA.com. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  14. ^ UEFA.com. "Mönchengladbach-Liverpool | UEFA Europa League 1972/73". UEFA.com. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  15. ^ "Spieltag". DFB - Deutscher Fußball-Bund e.V. (in German). 10 May 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  16. ^ "Fussballdaten". Fussballdaten (in German). Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  17. ^
    New York Times
    . 6 July 1983. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  18. ^ FourFourTwo Staff (26 May 2020). "The 100 greatest football managers of all time". fourfourtwo.com. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  19. ^ "Who are the best 50 football managers of all-time? | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 21 October 2022.

External links

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