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 bega ...

. He is predominantly remembered for his first spell with SV Waldhof Mannheim, when he led them to the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

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 footb ...

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 state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

, 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 state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

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 to win the

in the 1982–83 league season. During his time with them, he helped establish them within the

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-Sp ...

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-Ober ...

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 ...

, 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 champ ...

. 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 *

: 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