Felix Magath at a press conference of VfL Wolfsburg

Personal information
Full name Wolfgang-Felix Magath
Date of birth 26 July 1953
Place of birth Aschaffenburg, West Germany
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7
1

2
in)
Playing position Offensive Midfielder
Youth career
19601964 VfR Nilkheim
19641972 TV 60 Aschaffenburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps

(Gls)

19721974 Viktoria Aschaffenburg

19741976 1. FC Saarbrcken 76 (29)
19761986 Hamburger SV 306 (46)
Total 386 (75)
National team
19771986 West Germany 43 (3)
Teams managed
19951997 Hamburger SV
19971998 1. FC Nrnberg
19981999 Werder Bremen
19992001 Eintracht Frankfurt
20012004 VfB Stuttgart
20042007 Bayern Munich
20072009 VfL Wolfsburg
20092011 Schalke 04
20112012 VfL Wolfsburg
Felix Magath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wolfgang-Felix Magath (German pronunciation:
[magat]; born 26 July 1953) is a former German
football central midfielder and current manager. Until
October 2012, he was manager of VfL Wolfsburg.
1 Playing career
2 Off-field career
2.1 19861992: General manager
2.2 19922001: Early coaching career
2.3 20012007: Manager at Stuttgart
and Bayern
2.4 2007present: Manager and director
of football combined
2.5 Reputation
3 Personal life
4 Statistics
4.1 Club
4.2 International statistics
4.2.1 National team statistics
4.2.2 International goals
4.3 Managerial record
5 Honours
5.1 Player
5.1.1 Club
5.1.2 Country
5.2 Manager
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Born near Aschaffenburg, Magath started his career
playing for local club Viktoria Aschaffenburg. From
197476, he played for 1. FC Saarbrcken, at that
time in the second division, before moving to
Hamburger SV in the top flight.
He would spend the following ten seasons with
Hamburg, and from his debut in 1976 to his
retirement he scored 46 goals in 306 games in the
first division.
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the
domestic league only.
Appearances (Goals).
In 1983, Magath led Hamburg to success in the
European Cup, scoring the single goal in the final
against Juventus FC; in 198081, he netted a
career-best (in the first division) 10 goals, helping his
side to a runner-up league spot, as Hamburg also won the league in three years during that time.
He also represented the German national team at many international events, including the 1982 and 1986
FIFA World Cups, helping Germany land in second place both times. He was also part of the squad that won
the 1980 UEFA European Championships. Magath made his debut on 30 April 1977, in a 21 friendly win
with Yugoslavia, and went on to amass 43 caps, with three goals.
19861992: General manager
Having suffered a career-ending knee injury, Magath retired shortly after the 1986 World Cup and became
general manager for his former club Hamburg. Magath left Hamburg in June 1988 after moderate success.
His next stints as general manager included then 2. Bundesliga side 1. FC Saarbrcken (November 1989 to
June 1990) as well as Bayer Uerdingen (July 1990 to January 1992) who were relegated from the first tier
during Magath's time at the club.
19922001: Early coaching career
Magath took up coaching in 1992 as a player-coach for the fourth-tier club FC Bremerhaven which he led to
division championship. He then rejoined Hamburg as reserves coach in 1993 and became manager Benno
Mhlmann's assistant soon after. Magath succeeded Mhlmann as manager after the latter was sacked in
October 1995. Having reached the UEFA Cup during his first season, Hamburg finished the following season
as disappointing 13th and Magath was sacked.
In the following years, Magath acquired a reputation as a fireman, coming in at difficult times at a club and
leading it to salvation. In September 1997, he took over 1. FC Nrnberg who were newly promoted to the 2.
Bundesliga and fighting relegation. The Club finished the season as third, meaning promotion to the
Bundesliga, but Magath left due to differences in opinion with the club president Michael A. Roth. During a
short stint at SV Werder Bremen during the 199899 season, Magath lead the club out of relegation places,
only for Bremen to find themselves in the relegation dogfight again with two games to go. Halfway through
the 199900 season, Magath joined troubled Eintracht Frankfurt. An impressive Magath-inspired run saw
Frankfurt finish the second round as third best and four points off relegation. Magath was sacked the season
after when Frankfurt found themselves third last in January.
20012007: Manager at Stuttgart and Bayern
Magath bounced back with what was to become one of his most successful stints when he took over fellow
relegation battlers VfB Stuttgart a few weeks after. Having narrowly avoided relegation in 2001, Stuttgart
finished the 200102 in a mid-table position. The club went then on to become 200203 Bundesliga
runners-up and finished the 200304 season as respectable fourth. During this time, Magath also introduced
a group of players from the Stuttgart youth ranks, such as Timo Hildebrand, Andreas Hinkel and Kevin
Kurnyi, who became known as "die jungen Wilden" (wild youth). The Stuttgart stint was also the first time
Magath combined the manager and the director of football roles, rather an anomaly in Germany where
managers tend to be in charge of day-to-day training and matchday coaching only and are not responsible for
transfers and contract negotiations.
Having impressed with Stuttgart, Magath was handed the FC Bayern Munich job on 1 July 2004.
[1]
In his
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first season, Magath was able to lead his team to victory in both the league and cup, completing the double, a
feat which would be repeated in 200506, the first time ever in the competition's history.
However, after a slow start to the 200607 season, with the team mired in fourth place which would not
qualify them for the Champions League, Magath was sacked on 31 January 2007.
[2]
On 7 August 2006, Magath revealed that the Puerto Rico Football Federation had approached him with an
offer to assume the position of national team director in preparation for the Caribbean commonwealth's 2010
World Cup qualifying campaign in South Africa.
"I have an offer from Puerto Rico, Magath told Focus magazine. The president of the Puerto
Rico Football Federation asked me whether I could work as team director in the build-up to the
2010 World Cup."
Magath went on to admit that he was tempted, although he ultimately turned it down.
2007present: Manager and director of football combined
In June 2007, he signed a contract with VfL Wolfsburg,
[3]
as manager and director of football. Magath lead
the Wolves to play in the 200809 UEFA Cup and the following season's Champions League, the latter as
league champions for the first time.
Before the season 200809 had ended, he agreed on a four-year contract with FC Schalke 04, again as both
head coach and director of football, starting on 1 July 2009.
[4]
Schalke finished Magath's first season in
charge as runners-up, but after a series of disappointing domestic performances and growing player
discontent, Magath was sacked by Schalke in March 2011.
[5]
Only 24 hours later, on 17 March, he once again signed with now relegation-battling VfL Wolfsburg, the side
he had previously led to the league title in 2009. Magath steered the club to safety, but though the club
invested heavily, Magath could only achieve a mid-table finish in the following 201112 season. After only
five points in eight matches (and no goals and points in the last four games) in the 201213 season, Magath
left the club by mutual consent on 25 October 2012.
Reputation
As a manager, Magath quickly gained respect and became notorious for his hard, grinding training methods,
laying heavy emphasis on discipline, fitness and conditioning. Players gave him nicknames like "Saddam"
(Saddam Hussein) or Qulix, a mash of his first name Felix and the German verb qulen (to torture).
[6]
He was once described by former Eintracht Frankfurt player Bachirou Salou as the "last dictator in
Europe".
[7]
Magath is the son of a former Puerto Rican soldier in the United States Army stationed in Aschaffenburg and
a German mother. Both were abandoned by his father in 1954, when he returned to his homeland. The
adolescent Magath first heard from his father when he was 15 years old, after he wrote a letter to Puerto
Rico. In 1999, he visited Puerto Rico and finally met his father. They established a relationship and started
visiting each other twice a year ever since.
Magath is also a chess enthusiast, an interest which he developed during the 1978 World Chess
Championship while he was bedridden due to hepatitis.
[8]
In 1985, he played in a simultaneous exhibition
against Garry Kasparov.
[9]
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Club
Club performance League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Germany League DFB-Pokal Europe Total
197475
1. FC Saarbrcken 2. Bundesliga
38 12
197576 38 17
197677
Hamburger SV Bundesliga
30 1
197778 33 4
197879 21 4
197980 32 5
198081 33 10
198182 28 8
198283 34 4
198384 34 5
198485 32 3
198586 29 2
Total Germany 382 75
Career total 382 75
International statistics
National team statistics
[10]
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Germany national team
Year Apps Goals
1977 2 0
1978 0 0
1979 0 0
1980 6 1
1981 11 1
1982 5 0
1983 0 0
1984 2 0
1985 8 1
1986 9 0
Total 43 3
International goals
Score and results list West Germany's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 10 September 1980 St. Jakob-Park, Basel Switzerland 20 32 Friendly
2. 14 October 1981 Praterstadion, Vienna Austria 21 31 1982 World Cup qualifier
3. 27 March 1985 Ludwigsparkstadion, Saarbrcken Malta 20 60 1986 World Cup qualifier
Managerial record
As of 25 October 2012
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Team From To
Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win % Source
Hamburger SV II 1 July 1993
5 October
1995
73 25 18 30 108 129 21 34.25
Hamburger SV 5 October 1995 18 May 1997 71 29 20 22 107 106 +1 40.85
1. FC Nrnberg
1 September
1997
30 June 1998 29 16 8 5 43 21 +22 55.17
Werder Bremen 22 October 1998 10 May 1999 28 10 8 10 32 35 3 35.71
Eintracht
Frankfurt
27 December
1999
29 January
2001
37 15 5 17 49 59 10 40.54
VfB Stuttgart
23 February
2001
30 June 2004 208 91 54 63 305 241 +64 43.75
Bayern Munich 1 July 2004
31 January
2007
135 85 26 24 270 136 +134 62.96
VfL Wolfsburg 15 June 2007 30 June 2009 85 46 18 21 180 110 +70 54.12
Schalke 04 1 July 2009 16 March 2011 83 44 16 23 125 82 +43 53.01
VfL Wolfsburg 18 March 2011
25 October
2012
52 18 10 24 69 87 18 34.62
Total 801 379 183 239 1,288 973 +315 47.32
Player
Club
Hamburger SV:
Bundesliga: 197879, 198182, 198283;
European Cup: 198283
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 197677
UEFA Super Cup: 1977 runner-up, 1983 runner-up
UEFA Cup: 198182 runner-up
Country
UEFA European Football Championship: 1980
Manager
Stuttgart:
UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002
Bayern Munich:
Bundesliga: 200405, 200506
DFB-Pokal: 200405, 200506
DFB Ligapokal: 2004
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Wolfsburg:
Bundesliga: 200809
List of famous Puerto Ricans
^ "Magath answers Bayern call" (http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/news/newsid=180483.html).
UEFA.com. 19 May 2004. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
1.
^ "Hitzfeld installed as Bayern axe Magath" (http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story
/0,,2002937,00.html). The Guardian. 31 January 2007. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
2.
^ "Magath handed power at Wolfsburg" (http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/news/newsid=545263.html).
UEFA.com. 31 May 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
3.
^ "Magath to sign four-year contract as general manager and head coach" (http://www.schalke04.com
/news/single-view/artikel/magath-to-sign-four-year-contract-as-general-manager-and-head-coach.html). Schalke
04. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
4.
^ "Schalke part company with Felix Magath" (http://www.schalke04.com/news/single-view/artikel/schalke-
part-company-with-felix-magath.html). Schalke 04. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
5.
^ Michael Schreiber (26 May 2003). ""Qulix" wird zum Pdagogen" ["Qulix" turns pedagogue]
(http://sport.ard.de/sp/fussball/news200305/26/rueckblick_magath.jhtml). Sport.ard. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
6.
^ "Salou: Magath wie Diktator" (http://www.rp-online.de/sport/fussball/salou-magath-wie-diktator-1.1676238) (in
German). Rheinische Post Online. 5 January 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
7.
^ Hesse-Lichtenberger, Uli (8 October 2003). "This season's dark horses" (http://espnfc.com/columns
/story?id=279854&root=europe&cc=5739). ESPN. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
8.
^ "Partien zugleich: 10 Sekunden pro Zug" (http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13514177.html). Der Spiegel
(in German). 10 June 1985. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
9.
^ Arnhold, Matthias (30 October 2004). "Felix Wolfgang Magath International Appearances"
(http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/magath-intl.html). RSSSF. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
10.
Felix Magath (http://www.fussballdaten.de/spieler/magathfelix/) at fussballdaten.de (German)
Felix Magath (http://www.national-football-teams.com/player/16714.html) at National-Football-
Teams.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Felix_Magath&oldid=571907316"
Categories: 1953 births Living people People from Aschaffenburg Sportspeople from Bavaria
German people of Puerto Rican descent German people of American descent German footballers
Association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players
Viktoria Aschaffenburg players 1. FC Saarbrcken players Hamburger SV players
Germany international footballers Germany B international footballers UEFA Euro 1980 players
1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players
UEFA European Football Championship-winning players German football managers
Bundesliga managers Hamburger SV managers 1. FC Nrnberg managers
Eintracht Frankfurt managers SV Werder Bremen managers VfB Stuttgart managers
FC Bayern Munich managers VfL Wolfsburg managers
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