Otto Rehhagel (German: [ˈʁeːhaːɡl̩]; born 9 August 1938) is a German former football coach and player. He is nicknamed "King Otto" (βασιλιάς Όθων) for his triumph with the Greece national team in the 2004 European Championship and his successful coaching career in Germany.
Rehhagel is one of only two people who, as player and manager combined, has participated in over 1,000 Bundesliga matches (the other being Jupp Heynckes). In the Bundesliga, he holds the records for the most wins (387), most draws (205), most losses (228), and his teams scored the most goals (1,473) and conceded more (1,142) than any other. He served as the head coach of Werder Bremen between 1981 and 1995, winning the league title twice and the 1992 Cup Winners' Cup, the club's only continental title so far. He sensationally won the Bundesliga with promoted team 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1998.
Internationally, Rehhagel coached Greece from 2001 to 2010 in their most successful footballing era — Greece unexpectedly won UEFA Euro 2004 and qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was their second World Cup appearance.
Born in Altenessen, Rehhagel began his playing career with local club TuS Helene Altenessen in 1948. He moved to Rot-Weiss Essen, after the start of the Bundesliga for Hertha BSC (1963–65), and until 1972 for Kaiserslautern. He played 201 games in the Bundesliga. As a player, Rehhagel was known as a tough-as-nails defender.
In 1974, he took charge of Kickers Offenbach, but failed to make an immediate impact as a manager. Most famously, while in charge of Borussia Dortmund in 1978, he suffered a historic, record-setting 12–0 loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach, after which the tabloids called him Otto Torhagel ("Tor" means goal in German, and "Hagel" means a hailstorm). In 1980, Rehhagel won his first trophy as a manager, when his Fortuna Düsseldorf side won the DFB-Pokal.
Rehhagel managed Werder Bremen from 1981 to 1995. During these 14 golden years for the club, Rehhagel transformed Werder from a small minnow into a powerhouse, dazzling spectators with powerful up-tempo play and a smothering defence. During this spell, Werder Bremen established themselves as one of the main teams in the Bundesliga, overtaking hated rivals Hamburg as the top club in the north and sparking an intense feud with Bayern Munich. In the mid-eighties, Rehhagel often fell just short of success and had a string of second places and Cup Final losses. In that time, his nickname was Otto II or Vizeadmiral ("Vice Admiral"). However, Rehhagel led Werder Bremen to two German championships in 1988 and 1993, two DFB-Pokal victories in 1991 and 1994, as well as winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992. In this period, Rehhagel produced a host of international stars, such as Rudi Völler, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Dieter Eilts, Marco Bode, Mario Basler, Hany Ramzy, Andreas Herzog and Rune Bratseth. Rehhagel's Werder Bremen team of 1987–88 was at that time the squad which conceded the fewest goals ever in the Bundesliga (22), this record was surpassed by Bayern Munich in the 2007–08 season with 21 goals. His stint with Werder Bremen (14 years Bundesliga) is the second longest consecutive occupation as a manager ever in the Bundesliga. It was eventually surpassed by Volker Finke of Freiburg (16 years).
After 14 years at Werder Bremen, Rehhagel left to manage former hated rivals, Bayern Munich, before the start of the 1995–96 season. Prior to Rehhagel's arrival, Bayern had a disappointing, but financially lucrative season in 1994–95 (a very poor sixth place in the Bundesliga, but semi-finals in the Champions League). In the summer of 1995, Bayern spent a lot of money, buying Jürgen Klinsmann, Andreas Herzog, and others, and Rehhagel was brought in as manager to replace Giovanni Trapattoni. It was widely expected that Munich would steamroll the opposition in 1995–96, but from day 1, Rehhagel clashed with the team and the team environment. His single-minded and occasionally eccentric ways did not mesh at all with Bayern, who quickly felt that Rehhagel was too rural at heart and had no clue about how to interact in the fancy environment of Munich. Moreover, Rehhagel's old-school tactics and patronising of the Bayern players caused major antipathy in the Bayern team, especially from Klinsmann, who never missed an opportunity to take shots at Rehhagel. Despite Rehhagel getting Bayern to the UEFA Cup final, Bayern's results in the Bundesliga dropped alarmingly in the second half of the season, and Rehhagel was famously sacked just 4 days before they were due to play in the first leg of the 1996 UEFA Cup final. Rehhagel's job was taken over by Franz Beckenbauer, who led the team to victory in the 1996 UEFA Cup final, but saw no upturn in form in the last couple of weeks in the Bundesliga, leading Bayern to finished second, as Borussia Dortmund won their second German championship in a row.
After being sacked by Bayern Munich, Rehhagel took over as manager of Kaiserslautern in 1996, after a season where the club had won the DFB-Pokal but had also been relegated from the top-flight following a catastrophic season in the Bundesliga. Rehhagel's team won the 1996–97 2. Bundesliga by ten points, ending the season with a 7-6 win over SV Meppen.
In Rehhagel's second season, Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga title, the first and so far only German championship triumph by a team that had just been promoted the previous season. Going into the season, expectations were low and the team's goal was only to avoid relegation. They started with a 1-0 win over reigning champions and Rehhagel's former club, Bayern, and moved into first place after four matchdays. Kaiserslautern were still first when the two teams played again, and won again, giving them a seven point lead at the top of the table. Kaiserslautern secured the title with a win over VfL Wolfsburg in the penultimate game of the season. Kaiserslautern's championship is regarded as one of the greatest achievements in German football history and was described as "something that will never happen again" by both Rehhagel and Rudi Völler.
As well as Jupp Heynckes, Rehhagel was offered the job of managing the Germany national team in summer 1998, but rejected it. In the season after the title, Rehhagel coached Kaiserslautern to the quarter-finals of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League and a fifth-placed finish in the Bundesliga, having club captain Andreas Brehme and libero Miroslav Kadlec. Rehhagel resigned from Kaiserslautern in October 2000 after a bad start to the new season and pressure from supporters. His final year at the club had been marred by a public dispute with star player Ciriaco Sforza.
Rehhagel finished with a record of 87 wins, 39 draws, and 48 losses.
In August 2001, following Vassilis Daniil's departure, Rehhagel was appointed as the new manager of Greece, ahead of other candidates, such as Marco Tardelli, Nevio Scala, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, and Terry Venables, who had also been considered for the managerial post. Rehhagel's first match in charge was in October 2001, a 2002 World Cup qualifier against Finland, which ended in a 5–1 away defeat. As a result, he rebuilt the squad, and in October 2003, after a 1–0 win over Northern Ireland, Greece qualified automatically for Euro 2004, ahead of Spain and Ukraine. Ranked 150–1 outsiders, they nevertheless defeated host nation Portugal, holders France and the much more fancied Czech Republic on the way to the final, where they again defeated Portugal 1–0. Rehhagel, who was seen as the man most responsible for the team's success, became the first foreign manager ever to win a European Championship and remains the only one to date. Despite not having a star-studded line-up, the Greek team won the championship, conceding no goals in the knockout stage.
Rehhagel adopted a defensive approach in playing his Greek side, using energetic midfielders to wear down the opponents and the policy of defending in numbers to numb the opposition's attacks. When charged with boring play, he said, "No one should forget that a coach adapts the tactics to the characteristics of the available players." His time at Werder Bremen, in contrast, saw play described as flashy and spectacular attacking football.