Josef Emanuel Hubertus "Sepp" Piontek (born 5 March 1940) is a German former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and manager.

Playing career

Born in Breslau, now

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. Piontek started his playing career with VfL Germania Leer. Between 1963 and 1972, the full-back played 203

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 ...

matches with 14 goals for SV Werder Bremen (he previously registered 75 matches and one goal with the side in Oberliga Nord (1960–1963), prior to the creation of Bundesliga), adding six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

(no goals) for the West German national team.

Coaching career

After retiring he managed, in Germany, Werder Bremen (1971–1975), and later

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

(1975–1976) and

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St Pauli (), is a German professional football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. The football department is part of a larger sp ...

(1978–1979). In 1979, Piontek became Danish national team coach after having previously managed Haiti (1976–1978). He sat through 115 international matches, leading Denmark to their first ever

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

participation in the 1986 tournament. His period as national team coach came just after the introduction of professional players in the national team, and under his reign the Denmark team became known as "Danish Dynamite". He quit as Denmark coach in April 1990 after the Danish national team failed to qualify for 1990 FIFA World Cup, and later coached

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

from an advice by fellow German and Piontek's teacher

Jupp Derwall Josef "Jupp" Derwall (10 March 1927 – 26 June 2007) was a German professional football manager and player. He was head coach of the West Germany national team between 1978 and 1984, winning the UEFA Euro 1980 and reaching the final of the 198 ...

from May 1990 to 1993, in which though failed to qualify for neither

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...

and

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 ...

, helped sparking a massive revival in Turkish football fortunes which would be witnessed by the time Piontek left. In the 1990s, Piontek returned to Denmark, where he coached Danish clubs

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but cur ...

and

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

, and subsequently worked with the Greenland national team. He currently earns a living as a lecturer.

Honours

Player

Werder Bremen *

: 1964–65, runners-up 1967–68 *

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 ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

References

External links

Danish national team profile
* *
Sepp Piontek Interview

German foundation beneath Turkey's rise to greatness

The forgotten story of...Danish Dynamite, the Denmark side of the mid-80s
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piontek, Sepp Living people 1940 births Association football defenders Sportspeople from Wrocław People from the Province of Lower Silesia German footballers Germany international footballers Germany B international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players SV Werder Bremen players German football managers UEFA Euro 1984 managers 1986 FIFA World Cup managers UEFA Euro 1988 managers SV Werder Bremen managers Fortuna Düsseldorf managers FC St. Pauli managers Haiti national football team managers Denmark national football team managers Turkey national football team managers Bursaspor managers AaB Fodbold managers Silkeborg IF managers Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers German expatriate sportspeople in Denmark German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate football managers in Denmark Expatriate football managers in Haiti Expatriate football managers in Turkey German expatriate sportspeople in Haiti