Gert Engels is a successful German football coach and former Bundesliga player with decades-long connections to East Asia.

Summary

Coming from a football family, Engels initially played for

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

during their golden decade and later completed a degree in

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

before starting his coaching career in Japan. As a pioneer of the J.League, he significantly influenced modern Japanese professional football and celebrated his greatest successes there. In various roles, he won the prestigious Japanese Emperor's Cup five times, a Japanese championship, a Japanese Super Cup, and the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. For his contributions to international football, especially promoting the sporting and cultural connection between Germany and Japan, the

UEFA Pro Licence The UEFA coaching licences are documents testifying credentials of manager (association football), managers/ coach (sport), coaches among members of UEFA. The governing body for association football, football in Europe mandates several licences, e ...

holder was honoured as German Football Ambassador in 2018.

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German football executive and former Manager (association football), manager and Football player, player. He is widely regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Klopp has been ...

was chosen as his successor the following year. In addition to his coaching positions in Japan and as the national coach of the Mozambique national team, Engels has run a football academy in Germany since 2009. He supports Japanese youth players physically and mentally and helps place them with professional clubs in Germany and Japan. Fluent in Japanese and deeply rooted in Japanese culture, he calls Japan his second home and is affectionately known as a "half-Japanese."

Career

Playing Career and Education in Germany

Gert Engels began his playing career at SG Düren 99 and later joined

, where he was part of the extended squad during the club's most successful period in the 1970s. Without ever playing in the Bundesliga, he won the German championship in both

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

with the team. Instead of continuing a professional career, he decided at 22 to play only semi-professionally and study sports science. He then first played for SV Baesweiler 09 and later returned to SG Düren 99.

Coaching Career

At the age of 32, Engels ended his playing career and moved to Japan to work as a coach. Starting at the amateur level, he had to learn Japanese – a skill that later proved advantageous when implementing the philosophies of international coaches as an assistant coach. His first coaching role was as player-coach for Prima Aseno FC, which now competes as Mito Hollyhock in the

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

. He then worked as sports teacher at Takigawa Daini High School in Akashi. In 1993, Engels became assistant coach for Yokohama Flugels under Shu Kamo. After Kamo took over the Japan national football team, Engels worked under four more coaches, including Carles Rexach of

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, before becoming head coach himself in 1998/99, leading the Flugels to win the Emperor's Cup. After the Flugels merged with the Yokohama Marinos, Engels took over JEF United Ichihara for the rest of the season. He then coached

Kyoto Sanga is a Japanese professional football club based in Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Ho ...

after Shu Kamo. Despite being unable to prevent relegation, he achieved immediate promotion and another Emperor's Cup victory. In 2004, Engels joined

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

as an assistant coach and worked with Guido Buchwald. Together they won the Emperor's Cup in 2005 and the double of the Emperor's Cup and the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

in 2006. After Buchwald's resignation, Engels continued working with Holger Osieck. The duo won the

in 2007 – the first international title for Urawa and Japan in that competition. Engels became head coach after Osieck's dismissal, leading the team in 42 matches before Volker Finke took over. In 2011, Engels became the head coach of the Mozambique national football team, resigning two years later due to unsatisfactory results. He won three of his twelve international matches, including a notable 2-0 victory against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

on September 9, 2012. For the next five years, Engels focused on his football school in Germany before returning to Japan in 2018 as an assistant coach for Vissel Kobe, working with Takayuki Yoshida, one of his former students. At Kobe, Engels coached world champions like Andrés Iniesta and

Lukas Podolski Lukas Josef Podolski (; born Łukasz Józef Podolski, , 4 June 1985) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or attacking midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. He is kno ...

. After Yoshida was dismissed as head coach, Engels left the club and served as an assistant coach at

under Ichizo Nakata for one season. During the pandemic, he coached at

INAC Kobe Leonessa INAC Kobe(INAC神戸レオネッサ, Ainakku-Kōbe Reonessa) is a professional Japanese women's soccer, football club from Kobe, founded in 2001. INAC stands for International Athletic Club, while Leonessa means Lioness in Italian language, Ita ...

for the first time a women's team. He led them to the 2020 Japanese runner-up position.

Achievements

International

* AFC Champions League: Winner

* FIFA Club World Cup: 3rd place

National

* J.League: Champion

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, runner-up

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* WE League: Runner-up

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* J2 League: Champion

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

* Emperor's Cup: Winner

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, finalist

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

* Japanese Super Cup: Winner

* J.League Cup: Finalist

Other Achievements

* German Football Ambassador:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Miscellaneous

* Since 2009, Engels has run the football school “SoccerLife” in his hometown of Düren. He offers training for Japanese players and teams in Düren and organizes training camps nationwide. He also facilitates player transfers to clubs in his home region between

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, and

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

. * During the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Engels worked as a TV analyst for Japanese television. * Engels was once considered for the head coach position of North Korea’s serial champion April 25 SC. His visit to assess the club turned into an adventure. * Michael Weiß, the most successful national team coach of

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, began his coaching career at Kyoto Sanga under Engels. * Engels is married to a Filipina and has two children.

External links

SoccerLife Football School (サッカーライフ)
* *

References

Borussia Mönchengladbach players German football managers 1957 births {{DEFAULTSORT:Engels, Gert Living people Footballers from Düren Expatriate football managers in Japan German expatriate sportspeople in Japan German men's footballers J1 League managers J2 League managers Yokohama Flügels managers JEF United Chiba managers Kyoto Sanga FC managers Urawa Red Diamonds managers Mozambique national football team managers Men's association football midfielders German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Mozambique Expatriate football managers in Mozambique West German men's footballers German women's football managers