Günter Bittengel (born 14 July 1966) is a Czech

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 ...

coach and former player. He played as a striker in the Czechoslovak First League and went on to play in the

Czech First League The Czech First League () also known as the Chance Liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Czech Republic and the highest level of the Czech Republic football league system. Seasons typically run from A ...

after the

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on December 31, 1992, was the Self-determination, self-determined Partition (politics), partition of the federal republic of Fifth Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovakia into the independent ...

. As a result, he also represented both Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic at international level.

Club career

During his playing career, Bittengel made over 100 league appearances for

Dukla Prague Dukla Prague () was a Czech football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in the 1966–67 season, reached the semi-finals of the ...

in six seasons at the club. He was part of the Dukla team which won the 1989–90

Czechoslovak Cup The Czechoslovak Cup () was a football cup competition held in Czechoslovakia. It was officially created in 1960 and folded in 1993 with the split between Czech Republic and Slovakia. The cup was played throughout Czechoslovakia until 1968–69. F ...

. Bittengel then went to Germany to play for Bayer Uerdingen. During his time in Germany he played 153 league matches, scoring a total of 20 goals. Later in his career, Bittengel returned to the Czech Republic and played for FK Chmel Blšany, where he was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. Bittengel, Jan Šimák and Pavel Pergl scored the first-ever top-flight goals for Blšany, each finding the net in a 3–1 win away at

Teplice Teplice (, until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; , ''Teplitz-Schönau'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 51,000 inhabitants. It is the most populous Czech spa town, followed by Karlovy Vary. The historic city cen ...

in August 1998.

International career

Bittengel played for the Czechoslovakia national under-21 football team between 1986 and 1988, scoring three times in 14 appearances. He progressed to the senior side, making his début for Czechoslovakia senior team in 1987. He played his fourth and final match for Czechoslovakia in 1991, Retrieved 14 June 2013. but would go on to play for the newly independent

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in a 1995 match against Finland, his only appearance.

Managerial career

As a manager, Bittengel's first

position was at FK Chmel Blšany, who he led between 2001 and 2003. He took charge of Blšany in the winter break of the 2001–02 Gambrinus liga, after the team had lost seven consecutive matches under boss Miroslav Beránek. Blšany remained in the top league throughout Bittengel's tenure, but suffered a run of five consecutive defeats at the beginning of the 2003–04 season. In October 2003, with the club still last in the table, having taken just two points from the opening ten matches, Bittengel was replaced by Michal Bílek. He took over at FK Viktoria Žižkov in the winter break of the 2003–04 Gambrinus liga, with the club second from bottom in the league. The club were relegated at the end of the season and Bittengel left Žižkov to join SC Xaverov Horní Počernice, a team which had just been relegated to the

Bohemian Football League 3rd Bohemian Football League (; ČFL) is one of the third level football leagues of the Czech Republic (the other is the Moravian-Silesian Football League). The league comprises teams from the historic Bohemia region. History The league was forme ...

, on a one-year contract. Bittengel joined FK Dukla Prague in July 2006, while the team was in the Prague Championship. He led Dukla until December 2009, when Luboš Kozel was brought in to lead the team and Bittengel moved to a new role as sporting director.

Honours

Dukla Prague

: 1989–90

References

External links

Günter Bittengel
at Hall of Fame Dukla Praha * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bittengel, Gunter 1966 births Living people Czech men's footballers Czechoslovak men's footballers Men's association football forwards Czech Republic men's international footballers Czechoslovakia men's under-21 international footballers Czechoslovakia men's international footballers German Bohemian people Dual internationalists (men's football) Dukla Prague footballers FK Chmel Blšany players KFC Uerdingen 05 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Czech First League players Czech football managers Czech First League managers FK Viktoria Žižkov managers Czechoslovak expatriate men's footballers Czech expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Czech expatriate sportspeople in Germany Footballers from Prague FK Dukla Prague managers Czechoslovak First League players FK Chmel Blšany managers