Stefan Kuntz (born 30 October 1962) is a German professional football manager and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who played as a striker. He is the head coach of the Turkey national team. Kuntz represented the Germany national team between 1993 and 1997, reaching the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

quarter-finals and winning

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

. He scored six goals from 25 full caps including in the Euro 1996 semi-final elimination of

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Club career

Kuntz's playing career lasted from 1983 until 1999. He made 449 appearances and scored 179 goals 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 ...

. Kuntz played for VfL Bochum, Bayer 05 Uerdingen, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

and also played in Turkey for

Beşiktaş J.K. Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (), also known simply as Beşiktaş (), is a Turkish sports club founded in 1903 that is based in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. The club's football team is one of the Big Three in Turkey and one of the most ...

In 1986 and 1994, Kuntz was the top scorer in the Bundesliga. In 1995, Kuntz joined Turkish side Beşiktaş following request of his compatriot coach Christoph Daum. Kuntz made his 1.Lig debut on 13 August 1995 in an away game against Kayserispor that ended 1–1. On 24 September 1995, he scored his first goal at week 5 home encounter against Istanbulspor which ended 5–2.

International career

At Euro 1996, Kuntz played a key role in the 1–1 draw with

in the semi-final, scoring the equalizer soon after England took the lead, as well as scoring the fifth penalty later in the shootout. During his international career, Kuntz obtained 25 caps, scoring six goals. None of these caps ended in a defeat for Germany (20 wins, one win after penalty shootout and four draws), which is the German record for most caps without defeat.

Post-playing career

From 2006 to 2008, Kuntz was the athletic director of VfL Bochum. Between 2008 and 2016, he was the chairman of the board of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. As coach of Germany U21 he won the

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial Association football, football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. ...

twice: in 2017, his side beat

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1–0 in the final, and in

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, Germany defeated

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by the same scoreline. On 19 September 2021, he was appointed as the new head coach of the Turkish national team.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Kaiserslautern *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

: 1989–90 *

: 1990–91 * DFL-Supercup: 1991 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 conte ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

Individual *

German Footballer of the Year The title Footballer of the Year (German: ''Fußballer des Jahres'') has been awarded in Germany since 1960. Eligible are German players as well as non-German players playing in Germany. In 1996, the title Women's Footballer of the Year (German ...

: 1991

Manager

Germany U21 *

: 2017,

; runner-up: 2019

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuntz, Stefan 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from Neunkirchen, Saarland Footballers from Saarland German footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany B international footballers Germany international footballers Association football forwards Borussia Neunkirchen players VfL Bochum players KFC Uerdingen 05 players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Arminia Bielefeld players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA European Championship-winning players Kicker-Torjägerkanone Award winners German expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey German football managers Borussia Neunkirchen managers Karlsruher SC managers SV Waldhof Mannheim managers Rot Weiss Ahlen managers Germany national under-21 football team managers Turkey national football team managers German expatriate football managers