Klaus Schlappner (born 22 May 1940) is a
football manager
''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...
. He is predominantly remembered for his first spell with
SV Waldhof Mannheim
SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...
, when he led them to the
2. Bundesliga title and several seasons in 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 ...
as well as being the first foreign coach to manage the
China national team.
Early career
Born in
Lampertheim
Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. In 1984, the town hosted the 24th ''Hessentag'' state festival.
Geography
Location
Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Cons ...
,
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
, Schlappner's early career in football was not particularly eventful. He played for his local football team in Lampertheim in his youth and only progressed up to amateur football or lower league regional football. He moved instead into coaching before he retired playing and achieved the necessary coaching certificates in 1976 before carrying on with his studies in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
to achieve a certificate in teaching football management.
Managerial career
Schlappner's career as a manager rose to prominence when he was able to lead
SV Waldhof Mannheim
SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...
to win the
2. Bundesliga in the
1982–83 league season. During his time with them, he helped establish them within 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 ...
for the next several seasons and oversaw them through some of their most successful periods in the club's history until he left in 1987.
SV Waldhof Mannheim
at abseits-soccer.com Retrieved 13 January 2013 He rejoined his former club SV Darmstadt 98
Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Spo ...
in the second tier to help them fight for promotion during the 1987–88 league season where they narrowly missed out on a position to the Bundesliga by losing a play-off position. The following seasons saw other second tier clubs 1. FC Saarbrücken and FC Carl Zeiss Jena
FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Obe ...
call for his services in their push for promotion, however, Schlappner was unable to achieve this with either team.
In 1992, he led the China national team to the semi-finals of the 1992 AFC Asian Cup
The 1992 AFC Asian Cup was the 10th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan between 29 October a ...
, but he was dismissed after the team failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 1994 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, United States, and one place for the defending champi ...
. He would nevertheless stay within China as a technical adviser for the football federation until he returned to Germany to manage SV Waldhof Mannheim again in 1996 to help them for their promotion bid to return to the Bundesliga, however his return was disappointing and he left before the season ended. He moved away from senior management but returned to Asia to help Iran to establish the newly re-branded Iran Pro League
The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...
during 2000 as well as acting as an adviser for the Mongolian Football Federation
The Mongolian Football Federation (MFF, mn, Монголын Хөлбөмбөгийн Холбоо, ''Mongolyn Khölbömbögiin Kholboo'') is the governing body of football in Mongolia. It was founded in 1959, and gained both FIFA and AFC affilia ...
in 2006.
Honours
Waldhof Mannheim
* 2. Bundesliga: 1982–83
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlappner, Klaus
1940 births
Living people
People from Lampertheim
Sportspeople from Darmstadt (region)
People from the People's State of Hesse
German football managers
China national football team managers
1992 AFC Asian Cup managers
SV Darmstadt 98 managers
SV Waldhof Mannheim managers
1. FC Saarbrücken managers
FC Carl Zeiss Jena managers
Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic F.C. managers
Paykan F.C. managers
German expatriate football managers
German expatriate sportspeople in China
Expatriate football managers in China
German expatriate sportspeople in Iran
Expatriate football managers in Iran