Klaus Toppmöller (born 12 August 1951) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former professional player.

Playing career

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, Toppmöller scored 108

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

goals for

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

in 204 matches in the West German top flight. He earned three caps and scored one goal during his international career for

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Coaching career

Toppmöller became coach of FSV Salmrohr from summer 1987 to 18 April 1988 when he became coach of

SSV Ulm SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL e.V., commonly known as SSV Ulm 1846 or SSV Ulm, is a German football club based in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg. SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL was formed on 7 March 2009 as new independent club through the separation of the football ...

until February 1989. After his dismissal, Toppmöller coached East German second division side

Wismut Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. ...

from 28 November 1990 to 30 June 1991. He then transferred back to the Federal league with

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 ove ...

from 19 September 1991 to 30 June 1993. In light of his success, Toppmöller became coach of

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

, with whom he had a very successful start. But after failures with the squad relationship and resultantly missing the championship, he was dismissed on 10 April 1994. Toppmöller then joined

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

on 9 November 1994, with whom in the 1997–98 season reached the last sixteen of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. On 30 June 1999, Toppmöller left his position as coach of VfL Bochum to become coach of

1. FC Saarbrücken 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken () is a German Football in Germany, football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. History The club began its existence as the footbal ...

, but was eventually dismissed there on 29 November 2000. From 1 July 2001, Toppmöller was coach with

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

, whom in his first season led to the

UEFA Champions League final The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal football competition established in 1955. Prior to the 1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup. The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all UEFA (Union of Europe ...

, as well as second place in Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal final. Toppmöller was eventually declared by German sports journalists as "football coach of the year" for 2002. However, in the following season Leverkusen performed poorly, and in light of a poor league position which could have led to relegation, Toppmöller was sacked on 16 February 2003. Toppmöller became coach of

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

on 23 October 2003. However, after the team fell to last place in the league, mostly because of his unusual tactics, formations and usage of out of position players (such as striker

Sergej Barbarez Sergej Barbarez ( sr-cyrl, Сергеј Барбарез; born 17 September 1971) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. A forward, Barbarez played for sev ...

in defence), he was sacked on 17 October 2004. On 1 February 2006, Toppmöller became national coach of the

Georgia national football team The Georgia national football team ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული საფეხბურთო ნაკრები, tr) represents Georgia (country), Georgia in men's international association football, foo ...

, with

Ralf Minge Ralf Minge (born 8 October 1960) is a German footballer former coach and player who works as sporting director of Dynamo Dresden. He was an international for East Germany, and spent his entire professional career with Dynamo Dresden. Playing c ...

as assistant coach. He was dismissed on 1 April 2008.

Personal life

Toppmöller married Rosi in 1977, with whom he had Sarah-Nina,

Dino Dino may refer to: Prefix * dino-, a common prefix in taxonomy, meaning "terrible", "formidable" **Dinosaur ** Dinosaurus People * Dino (given name), a masculine given name and a nickname * Dino (surname), a surname found in Albania and Turkey ...

(coached him at Saarbrücken) and Tommy. His brother

Heinz The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. ...

(played together at Kaiserslautern) and nephew

Marco Marco may refer to: People Given name * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor Surname * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Jindřich Marco (1921–2000), Czechoslovak photographer and numismat ...

also became footballers.

Career statistics

Honours

As a manager

Bayer Leverkusen *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

runner-up: 2001–02 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

runner-up: 2001–02 Individual * German Football Manager of the Year: 2002

References

External links

NASL career stats
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toppmoller, Klaus Living people 1951 births Men's association football forwards German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's B international footballers SV Eintracht Trier 05 players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Dallas Tornado players Calgary Boomers players FSV Salmrohr players German football managers Eintracht Frankfurt managers 1. FC Saarbrücken managers VfL Bochum managers Bayer 04 Leverkusen managers Hamburger SV managers Bundesliga players Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers Georgia national football team managers FC Erzgebirge Aue managers Expatriate football managers in Georgia (country) German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Georgia (country) West German men's footballers West German football managers West German expatriate men's footballers West German expatriate sportspeople in Canada West German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada People from Bernkastel-Wittlich Footballers from Rhineland-Palatinate