Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

(1980–1987) and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

(1988–1990). He played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and was nicknamed "der Blonde Engel" (the Blond Angel). After retiring as a player, he managed a number of European clubs, including

, taking them to the league title in the 2007–08 season.

Club career

Schuster started his professional career with 1. FC Köln at age 18 in 1978 after a number of promising performances with the West German Under-18 National team. Schuster left Köln after the 1980 European campaign to sign with Spain's

, where he flourished. During his career, he played for clubs

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

and

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. At his final team, the Mexican side Pumas de la UNAM he appeared in ten matches in spring 1997.

Barcelona

Schuster was an important part of the FC Barcelona team during the 1980s, leading the game from midfield and scoring many goals. His club president

Josep Lluís Núñez José Luis Núñez Clemente (7 September 1931 – 3 December 2018), often known by the Catalanized form of his name used by the Catalan press, Josep Lluís Núñez i Clemente, was president of FC Barcelona between 1978 and 2000. He was elected ...

and some trainers like

Helenio Herrera Helenio Herrera Gavilán (; 10 April 1910 – 9 November 1997) was an Argentine, naturalized French, football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success with the Inter Milan team known as ''Grande Inter'' in the 1960s. During ...

Udo Lattek Udo Lattek (16 January 1935 – 31 January 2015) was a German professional football player and coach. Lattek is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game, having won 15 major titles, most famously with Bayern Munich. He also ...

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

and

Luis Aragonés Luis Aragonés Suárez (; 28 July 1938 – 1 February 2014) was a Spanish football player and manager. Aragonés spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the succe ...

had difficult relations with him. He won, however, the European Silver Ball in 1980 and Bronze Ball in 1981 and 1985. At age 21, in 1981, he received a bad injury on his right knee by

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

defender Andoni Goikoetxea.

Real Madrid

Schuster's move to

was controversial due to the strong rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid. His style complemented the group of home-grown Madrid players known as la

Quinta del Buitre is the moniker given by Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias to the five homegrown Real Madrid players who were at the core of the team that dominated Spanish football in the 1980s. The name ("Vulture's Cohort") was derived from Emili ...

who led the team to a dominance of the Spanish Championship through the 1980s.

Atlético Madrid

Schuster signed with

in autumn 1990 and helped improve the performance of Atletico's traditional games based on backpasses. His long precise passes helped restore Atlético Madrid as a prominent club.

Bayer Leverkusen

In 1993, Schuster returned home to Germany to play for three seasons with

. Despite his contributions, the club was unable to capture

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

and German Cup titles but his performances inspired much of the country to push for a place for him in the 1994 World Cup squad. In the national TV-Station ARD "Goal of the year" election Schuster won the first three places in 1994. In the

UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll The UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll is the popular name for an online poll conducted in 2004 by UEFA as part of their Golden Jubilee celebrations, celebrating the best European footballers from the fifty previous years. The poll, available on UEFA's websi ...

to name the finest European players of the last five decades, Schuster finished 40th.

International career

Schuster was part of the West Germany national team that won the 1980 UEFA European Football Championship in Italy, appearing in two of Germany's four matches. His performances there helped him earn the Silver Ball Trophy honour as the Europe's second best player in 1980 behind Golden Ball winner, and Germany team-mate Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. His refusal to take part in a match against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

to be home for the birth of his second son David caused a sporting scandal at the time. Schuster retired from the German national team at the age of 24, due to his repeated disagreements with the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

, then national team manager

Jupp Derwall Josef "Jupp" Derwall (10 March 1927 – 26 June 2007) was a German professional football manager and player. He was head coach of the West Germany national team between 1978 and 1984, winning the UEFA Euro 1980 and reaching the final of the 198 ...

, and teammates including

Paul Breitner Paul Breitner (born 5 September 1951) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and left-back. Considered one of the best players of his era, Breitner was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team, and was named by Pel ...

. According to Schuster, it was due to a major disagreement with the managements of both Barcelona and the German national team on either side of a friendly match against Brazil. Overall Schuster won 21 caps for the West German national team

Coaching career

Fortuna Köln

Schuster was the coach of

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until a ...

between 1 July 1997 and 30 June 1998.

1. FC Köln

Schuster was coach of 1. FC Köln from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999. Schuster was unable to get the club promoted. In 2000, he applied for the manager job at Scottish club

Dundee FC Dundee Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Dundee, Scotland, founded in 1893. The team are nicknamed "The Dark Blues" or "The Dee". The club plays its home matches at Dens Park. The club was formed after a me ...

, but the Dundee chairman rejected his application.

Xerez

Schuster became coach of Xerez on 26 June 2001. Schuster coached the team successfully for two seasons. The second and third best seasons in the history of the club. However, he could not get the club promoted to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

Shakhtar Donetsk

In June 2003, he accepted a deal to coach

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

starting on 1 July 2003. Schuster established a club record number of consecutive victories. However, the team did not win the championship and did not reach the final round of the Champions League with a match against

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three oc ...

. Schuster was sacked on 5 May 2004, one week before his team played and won the Ukrainian Cup final in 2004.

Levante

Schuster returned to Spain in summer 2004 to coach Levante. Schuster was sacked on 1 May 2005. The sacking came with a 5-point advantage over the relegation zone with five matches remaining. However, Levante could not win a game and fell to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

again.

Getafe

Schuster moved to

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

in the summer of 2005. Schuster led them to their best season in team history under his guidance. Schuster coached Getafe in their second successful season and the team did even better, seventh in

. Getafe also secured entry to the 2007–08 UEFA Cup as a result of reaching the final of the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

after overcoming a 5–2 first leg semi-final defeat against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, beating them 4–0 in the second leg.

Real Madrid

Schuster was appointed coach of

on 9 July 2007. As manager, he made a successful start with Real Madrid, taking them to top of the La Liga standings. Attacking football returned again to the

Santiago Bernabéu stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

with Madrid having the strongest offence, not beaten at home from the start of the league and defeating their arch rival

at their home ground Camp Nou, increasing their lead to seven points between them and second place (Barcelona). The team qualified to the second round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

leading their group which contained

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

and

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. He changed Real Madrid's style of play, switching from the defensive football during the reign of

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which ...

to fast paced, attacking football. After losing 2–1 to

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League which meant the elimination of Real Madrid, many doubted that Schuster would continue to be Madrid's coach, but the club denied the allegations. On 4 May 2008, Schuster guided Real Madrid to their 31st title with three games to spare. On 18 May 2008, Schuster's

achieved the highest point total (85 points) a record that was set by rivals Barcelona. He went on to win the

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

. Although enjoying a successful season with Madrid, Schuster had frequent confrontations with the media. Sometimes refusing to answer questions, making controversial or sarcastic statements and walking out of press conferences. On 9 December 2008, Schuster stepped down as coach after a 4–3 defeat to

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

, and speaking out publicly about his team standing no chance of beating Barcelona (Coached by Pep Guardiola at the time) in the

El Clásico El Clásico or el clásico (; ca, El Clàssic, ; ) is the name given to any football match between rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions held in the Spanish championship, the term now includes every m ...

derby match. He was replaced by

Juande Ramos Juan de la Cruz "Juande" Ramos Cano (born 25 September 1954) is a Spanish former footballer and manager. After playing and managing at an amateur level, Ramos led Rayo Vallecano to promotion to La Liga, followed by reaching the quarter-finals o ...

Beşiktaş

On 10 June 2010, Turkish club Beşiktaş announced that Schuster had agreed to become the club's new coach on a two-year contract. Among his first signings for the club were Portuguese winger

Ricardo Quaresma Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo (; born 26 September 1983) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger. He began his career at Sporting CP and went on to play for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Porto (twice), Chelsea, Beşiktaş ...

Roberto Hilbert Roberto Jan Hilbert (born 16 October 1984) is a German former professional footballer. At international level, he earned eight caps with the Germany national team and twelve caps with the U21 team. Club career Born in Forchheim, West Germany, ...

and former Real midfielder

Guti José María Gutiérrez Hernández (born 31 October 1976), known as Guti, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, currently a manager. During his career, he played almost exclusively for Real Madrid ...

, who was coached by Schuster at Madrid. Later he bolstered the squad with three additional Portuguese stars

Simão Sabrosa Simão Pedro da Fonseca Sabrosa (born 31 October 1979), known mononymously as Simão (), is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger, with dribbling and set piece skills as primary attributes. Having pla ...

Hugo Almeida Hugo Miguel Pereira de Almeida (born 23 May 1984) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward. After failing to establish himself at Porto, being loaned several times during his contract, he made a name for h ...

and Manuel Fernandes. Schuster resigned on 15 March 2011 from Beşiktaş after the bad results, having frequent confrontations with the media, making controversial statements and walking out of press conferences. He was criticised by the Turkish media for trying to implement a reckless attacking style of play.

Málaga

Schuster became head coach at

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

on 12 June 2013. In May 2014 his contract was terminated after he failed to achieve a top-half position in the league.

Dalian Yifang

On 19 March 2018,

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association ...

team Dalian Yifang officially appointed Schuster as the coach. He was replaced by Choi Kang-hee in 2019.

Personal life

During his time as a player, Schuster and his wife Gaby were celebrities in Germany. Gaby had a controversial reputation, which worsened when she took over the job as her husband's manager. During the Schusters' stay in Spain, she was also notorious for her often public comments directed towards FC Barcelona coach

and national coach

when her husband played for them. The couple have four children. In 2008, Schuster separated from Gaby Schuster. In 2012, after his divorce, he married Elena Blasco, a Spanish lawyer.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial

Honours

Player

Barcelona *

: 1984–85 *

: 1980–81, 1982–83, 1987–88 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

: 1981–82 * Copa de la Liga: 1983 Real Madrid *

: 1988–89, 1989–90 *

: 1988–89 *

: 1989 Atlético Madrid *

: 1990–91, 1991–92 West Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

: 1980 Individual *

UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament At the end of each UEFA European Championship tournament, several awards are attributed to the players and teams which have distinguished from the rest, in different aspects of the game. Awards There are currently five post-tournament awards, and o ...

: 1980 *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (fo ...

runner-up: 1980; third place: 1981, 1985 *

Don Balón Award From 1976 until 2010, the Spanish sports magazine ''Don Balón'' conferred the Don Balón Award (''Premio Don Balón'') to the best Spanish player, the best foreign player, the best referee and the breakthrough player in La Liga. These awards cease ...

for Best Foreign Player: 1985, 1991 * ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

Team of the Season: 1993–94 *

Goal of the Year (Germany) The Goal of the Year in Germany is, like the '' Goal of the Month'' ( Tor des Monats), the ''Goal of the Decade'' and ''Goal of the Century'', an individual football award selected by spectators of the ''Sportschau'' ( ARD German TV), among spect ...

: 1994

Manager

Getafe *

runner-up: 2006–07 Real Madrid *

: 2007–08 *

: 2008 Individual *

Miguel Muñoz Trophy The Miguel Muñoz Trophy ( es, Trofeo Miguel Muñoz) is a football award for team managers in Spanish football, established by Spanish newspaper Marca in 2006, in memory of the legendary Real Madrid manager Miguel Muñoz. The award is based ...

for Best Coach of the Year: 2006

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schuster, Bernd 1959 births Living people Sportspeople from Augsburg Footballers from Bavaria West German footballers German footballers Association football midfielders FC Augsburg players 1. FC Köln players FC Barcelona players Real Madrid CF players Atlético Madrid footballers Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Club Universidad Nacional footballers Bundesliga players La Liga players Liga MX players Germany youth international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany international footballers UEFA Euro 1980 players UEFA European Championship-winning players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Spain German expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Mexico German football managers SC Fortuna Köln managers 1. FC Köln managers Xerez CD managers FC Shakhtar Donetsk managers Levante UD managers Getafe CF managers Real Madrid CF managers Beşiktaş J.K. managers Málaga CF managers Dalian Professional F.C. managers 2. Bundesliga managers Segunda División managers Ukrainian Premier League managers La Liga managers Süper Lig managers Chinese Super League managers German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey German expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate football managers in Spain Expatriate football managers in Ukraine Expatriate football managers in Turkey Expatriate football managers in China