04/01/2002 (www.uefa.com)
Ottmar Hitzfeld - the Midas Touch
Ottmar Hitzfeld has enjoyed a magnificent career, which has seen him conquer European club football's highest peaks.
Swiss domestic success
Born in 1949 in the German town of L�rrach, close to the Swiss border, Hitzfeld enjoyed considerable domestic success as a player with neighbouring Swiss outfit FC Basel, winning the league title in 1972 and 1973, and the Swiss Cup in 1975. His club career also took him to VfB Stuttgart in the German 1. Bundesliga, and FC Lugano and FC Luzern back over the Swiss border. He reached the Olympic football final with the German national Olympic team in 1972.
Coaching elite
Hitzfeld began his coaching career in Switzerland in 1983, and took charge of SC Zug, FC Aarau and Grasshopper-Club. But it was back in Germany that he discovered the Midas touch at the highest level. In 1997, he took BV Borussia Dortmund to the UEFA Champions League title. FC Bayern M�nchen secured his services a year later, and he was only denied European club football's most prestigious crown again by an improbable Manchester United FC comeback in the 1999 final. Recovering from that disappointment, Hitzfeld brandished the European Champion Clubs' Cup with Bayern last May, cementing his place among the world's coaching elite.
Guiding principles
Hitzfeld has a set of guiding principles, which he uses in his everyday work as a coach. He touched upon these principles during a pre-season magazine interview, and then expanded on his ideas for a recent issue of the UEFA magazine, The Technician.
The Technician : You have established a list of coaching principles. Could you explain them?
Ottmar Hitzfeld : Yes, it is true, I do have a list of principles and I am happy to repeat them to you. They are as follows:
1. Be respectful
This means that the players and the staff must be polite to the public, the bus driver, the journalists, etc. It is especially important that they, the players, do not verbally attack each other and damage the team's harmony.
2. Trust your players and your feelings
Don't criticise the players too much - put your faith in them. Also, trust your intuition and ignore the public and the press when you are making decisions. Prepare with your brain and then add your feelings when the action begins.
3. Keep your distance
It is necessary for the trainer/coach to keep a certain distance from the players - they are not your personal friends. At Bayern, the players call me Mr Trainer.
4. Appreciate individual characteristics
Certain players, like Effenberg, have a great desire to win. We need to accept players like that and to recognise their individual traits. Of course, if such players step out of line, they are fined like everybody else.
5. Learn from your mistakes
As a coach, you must always find something positive in a failure. We learned from Manchester United in the 1999 final that you must keep going to the very end. We proved that we had learned the lesson when we won last season's German championship in the last three minutes of the last game of the season.
6. Protect your stars
Weak stars mean a weak team. The stars are under great pressure and it is important to maintain their star position within the team - you must maintain their star status.
7. Never lie
When you promise something to a player you must deliver, otherwise you will lose your credibility - lose that and it is over.
8. Avoid envy
It is vital that the players acknowledge the roles of those within the team. Jealousy can cause a great deal of harm to a team.
9. Show strength
It is important that the coach never shows weakness. His facial expression must give assurance to the players.
10. Handle the stress
Try to ignore the expectations of others, avoid too many meetings, and never talk football at home.
11. Select good staff
As a head coach, you need good people around you - people who can offer balance and a variety of expertise. Members of the backroom staff must be honest and trustworthy. A yes man is no good, you need honest opinions.
The Technician : With these principles as your guide, you have been very successful. Which of your 19 trophies was the most significant from a career perspective?
Ottmar Hitzfeld : There were three landmark victories which were crucial for my progress as a coach. The first was winning the Swiss Cup with Aarau in 1985 - that set me on the road to greater things. Then we won the Swiss championship with Grasshoppers in 1990 and this led to my move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany. Winning the Bundesliga with Dortmund in 1995 was the third and decisive step up the ladder.
The Technician : How has football changed since you started coaching in 1983?
Ottmar Hitzfeld : The game has definitely become faster, and this has put great demands on the players, both physically and technically. The players today must accept a professional lifestyle and work hard at all aspects of their game. Even defenders have had to improve their technical skills because it is imperative that they take part in the build-up play. Everything has improved, including the medical treatment. Pressure has also increased, and sponsors and commercial people want results. The players are stars and all of them must handle the media - every day we are confronted by five TV stations. To add to all of this, I need to be a psychologist, dealing with millionaire players who all have their own demands and pressures. The Bosman Ruling has changed the attitude of the players - money has become their priority and agents make them crazy. Another aspect of the Bosman situation has been the movement of players across borders, but we at Bayern have the ambition to have as many German players in the team as possible. The youth programme has therefore become even more important to us.
The Technician : Where do you see the game going?
Ottmar Hitzfeld : More surprises will come due to the political moves of the EU [European Union] and the collective power being exerted by the players. For example, we have had to generate more commercial activities, just to keep the same group of players happy. When we talk about the future, it is essential that we keep the core of our activities football-oriented - it is a game after all.
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