Reinhard Saftig (born 23 January 1952) is a German retired

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 ...

player and manager. Saftig has served as head coach of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

in the German

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 ...

Career

Saftig was born in Uersfeld. He began his head coaching career as the short-term manager of

, as a replacement for Pal Csernai. Saftig was in this role for 45 days only (17 May to 30 June 1983). He then took over in

in the latter half of the 1985–86 season and secured Borussia's stay in the top flight in three intense relegation play-offs against 2. Bundesliga side

Fortuna Köln Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Re ...

. The following season was much stronger and resulted in Borussia Dortmund qualifying for 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 ...

after finishing 4th. In 1991, Saftig arrived at the scene of a fatal highway accident involving Maurice Banach, a former player in the A-Youth squad of Borussia Dortmund, before the emergency services arrived. Banach had played for Saftig during his time with the youth squad. During the 1992–93 season, Saftig led

to the final of the

German Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English, 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 Bundes ...

. After his untimely firing by the club, Leverkusen would go on to clinch the Cup, defeating

Hertha Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football, following relegation from t ...

Amateurs in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. In 1994, he briefly took over the reins of Turkish club

Kocaelispor Kocaelispor is a Turkish professional football club based in İzmit, Kocaeli. They were founded in 1966 and played in the top level between 1980 and 1988, 1992–2003, and the 2008–09 seasons. Their best finish was in the 1992–93 season, w ...

before switching to

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. From 22 June 2005 until 2008, Saftig served as general manager for

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

. Prior to this position, he had worked as chief scout for Borussia Dortmund.

Coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saftig, Reinhard 1952 births Living people People from Vulkaneifel German men's footballers German football managers Hannover 96 managers VfL Bochum managers Galatasaray S.K. (football) managers Bayer 04 Leverkusen managers FC Bayern Munich managers FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff Süper Lig managers Borussia Dortmund managers Bundesliga managers 1. FSV Mainz 05 managers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Rhineland-Palatinate TuS Mayen players 20th-century German sportsmen