György Kottán (6 October 1946 – 25 September 2023), also referred to as a Georg Kottán or George Kottán, was a Hungarian-Austrian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and player. Kottan is regarded as the most influential coach in the history of Bangladeshi football. He guided the Bangladesh national team to their first

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. Additionally, he holds the record for being the only coach to win the

Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ প্রিমিয়ার লীগ) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league consisting of seven franchises. The BPL is one of the three professional cricket leagues in ...

as an undefeated champion, with Abahani Limited Dhaka in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Playing career

Kottán played as a midfielder and started his career at MTK. His first match in the first league was on 5 April 1970. He left in 1972 to play in the

Austrian National League The Austrian National League (german: Österreichische Eishockey-Nationalliga) was a former second tier ice hockey league in Austria. For the 2012–13 season, it was replaced by the Inter-National League. Decline With the conclusion of the 201 ...

for SK VÖEST Linz where they won the title in 1974, becoming the first team from Linz to become Austrian champions. Kottán then transferred to

KFC Uerdingen 05 KFC Uerdingen 05 is a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side enjoyed its greatest successes in the 1980s but now plays in the fifth-level Oberliga. History The ...

of the

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 ...

in 1976 before winding up his playing career in 1979 in the US for the Los Angeles Aztecs in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

, playing for them for one season as a player-coach under Rinus Michels.

Managerial career

The following season Kottan became Rinus Michels assistant at the Aztecs. After a break, he rejoined Michels at German club

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

where they won the DFB-Pokal. In 1984 Kottan left to take charge of his first club in Austria, with Ch. Linz and stayed until 1987 when he left to become a coach under

Antal Dunai Antal Dunai, also known as Dunai II (né ''Dujmov'', 21 March 1943) is a Hungarian former footballer with Yugoslav origins. He became a first division player at Pécsi Dózsa, but he spent the majority of his career at Újpesti Dózsa from ...

first for Real Murcia and then moved with him in 1990 to

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

. Then in 1993, he worked with Dunai for the Hungarian Olympic football team, reaching the 1996 Olympic games. Kottan remained as a technical director until 2000 when he had the opportunity to manage

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, taking them to victory in the

2003 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup The 2003 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh between 10 January 2003 and 20 January 2003. All matches were played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Originally scheduled to be held between 26 January 2002 and ...

. Kottán also managed

Muktijoddha Sangsad Muktijoddha Sangsad a non-political welfare association of the combatants during the Bangladesh Liberation War formed on 13 February 1972. The organisation has a football club, Muktijoddha Sangsad KC, named after itself. History After the Par ...

of the

and in the process won the

Bangladesh Federation Cup Federation Cup, also known as Bangladesh Federation Cup, is Bangladesh's premier cup competition in men's association football. The competition started in 1980 and is run by the Bangladesh Football Federation which is responsible for all types of ...

. Later, Kottan took control of Indian

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

club

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

in 2005. Kottán became the Pakistan national team head coach on 20 February 2009. However, just one year later his contract wasn't renewed after mixed results. Then he joined Abahani Limited Dhaka, in 2015. In 2016, Kottán led Abahani to the

2016 Bangladesh Premier League Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * Sixteen (1943 film), ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 194 ...

trophy as unbeaten champions.

Other work

Kottan also worked on FIFA's Goal Project in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany and had a degree from the German Sport University Cologne. He also held a UEFA Pro Licence.

Death

György Kottán died in Budapest on 25 September 2023, at the age of 76.

Honours

Player

SK VOEST Linz *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 1973–74

Manager

Bangladesh * SAFF Gold Cup:

Muktijoddha Sangsad KS *

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

: 2003 Abahani Limited Dhaka *

References

External links

*
Kottan new Pakistan bossGeorg Kottan Interview
at kfc-uerdingen.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Kottan, Gyorgy 1946 births 2023 deaths Austrian people of Hungarian descent Hungarian men's footballers Austrian men's footballers Footballers from Budapest Men's association football midfielders Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players LASK players MTK Budapest FC players Los Angeles Aztecs players KFC Uerdingen 05 players SC Eisenstadt players Austrian football managers Pakistan national football team managers Bangladesh national football team managers Abahani Limited Dhaka managers Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate football managers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Pakistan Expatriate football managers in Pakistan Bangladesh Premier League (football) managers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Bangladesh Expatriate football managers in Bangladesh