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Rudi Völler

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Rudi Völler
Personal information
Full name Rudolf Völler
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Bayer Leverkusen (Sporting Director)

Rudolf 'Rudi' Völler (born April 13 1960) is a German former international football striker, and a former manager of the German national team. He won the FIFA World Cup in 1990 as a player and coached the national team to second place at the 2002 World Cup. He was born in Hanau, Hesse.

Club career

Völler, joined the Bundesliga team Werder Bremen in 1982, winning his first cap for Germany in the same year. In 1987 he was transferred to A.S. Roma, where he became a mainstay of the team and earned the nickname 'il tedesco volante' (the flying German). He won the Italian Cup in 1991.

In 1992, Völler joined Olympique Marseille, winning the Champions League with this team in 1993. Returning to Germany, he joined Bayer Leverkusen in 1994, where he ended his career as a player in 1996 and started a career in the management of the club.

National team

Völler was capped 90 times for the national team, scoring 47 goals, including 8 in World Cup finals matches. He was a member of the team that won the 1990 World Cup. He scored 3 times in the tournament, including one goal in a 4-1 win over Yugoslavia, and then found the net twice against the United Arab Eimirates in a 5-1 win. During the second-round game against Holland, Völler and Dutch player Frank Rijkaard were sent off the field after a spitting incident. Völler came back to play and star for Germany in both the semi-final and final, and he was the player brought down in the penalty area by an Argentinian defender, leading to Andreas Brehme's penalty kick in the final. Germany ended up winning the match 1-0.

The unsavoury incident that took place during the second-round match with Holland started when Rijkaard was booked for a bad tackle on Völler. As Rijkaard took up position for the free kick, he spat in Völler's hair. Völler complained to the referee and was booked as well. From the resulting free kick, Völler dove to avoid a collision with Dutch Keeper Hans van Breukelen, although it did also look as if he dove for a penalty. Van Breukelen was angry at this, but Rijkaard again confronted Völler by twisting his ear and stamping on his foot. Both Völler and Rijkaard were sent off, but Rijkaard again spat in Völler's hair as they left the pitch and was rumoured to have repeated this on the touchline. Rijkaard later stated that it was his fault: "That day I was wrong. There was no insult. I always had much respect for Rudi Völler. But I went berserk when I saw that red card. I talked to him after the match and I apologized. I'm very happy that he accepted. I have no bad feeling about him now. We even posed for a very funny advert together, years after." (Rijkaard had family problems in this time)[1].

Völler also played in Euro 84, he scored twice in a group match with Romania which the Germans won 2-1 but a 90th minute defeat against Spain in their next game saw West Germany eliminated when all they needed was a draw.

At the 1986 World Cup, Völler scored the West German's equalizer in a 2-1 win over Scotland in the group stage. He bagged a last minute goal against France in the semi final to seal a 2-0 win and in the final itself his 80th minute goal made it 2-2 against Argentina. West Germany had been 2-0 down but lost the match 3-2.

West Germany hosted the Euro 88, and Völler scored twice in a 2-0 win over Spain but the hosts lost to eventual winners Holland in the semi final.

He was again selected for the Euro 92 but was sent home when he suffered an injury in the opening game with CIS, with the Germans having a reputation for feigning injury Völler pulled up with a lot of pain when no one was near him leading many to believe he faked injury but his subsequent withdrawal from the squad showed his injury was legitimate.

At the 1994 World Cup Völler was kept out of the starting line up for all 3 group games by Jürgen Klinsmann and Karl-Heinz Riedle who scored 5 between them. He made just one sub appearance in the group stages. He did start the second round tie with Belgium and scored twice in a 3-2 win.

Trivia

Rudi is an unlockable player in EA Sports, 2006 FIFA World Cup. He also included in the 'Classic Germany' team in Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 6.

Coaching career

After a disappointing Euro 2000 for the national team under manager Erich Ribbeck, the DFB appointed Völler as new manager, even though he then did not have a coaching licence. At first only planning to manage the national team for one year, he extended his contract when his planned successor Christoph Daum was involved in a drug scandal. Despite losing to England 5-1 at home, he managed to lead the team to a surprising appearance in the Final of the 2002 World Cup.

After a first-round exit from Euro 2004, he resigned from his post.

Following his resignation from the German national job, Völler briefly made a comeback at A.S. Roma in 2004, this time as manager. Hired in late August as a last-minute appointment after the shock resignations of Cesare Prandelli, he left the club only one month later after a series of poor results and high-profile disagreements with players, notably Antonio Cassano.

Moving back to the support ranks at Bayer Leverkusen, Völler was named caretaker manager of Bayer Leverkusen on September 16, 2005 after the club sacked manager Klaus Augenthaler. Völler served in that role until Michael Skibbe was named as the club's new permanent manager that October.

Völler was (and still is) very popular in Germany. Even when the national squad achieved only modest results, Völler never lost his popularity as the German public knew he was achieving as much as possible with a relatively limited squad. His predecessor Berti Vogts by contrast was widely "slagged off" by everybody even during periods of success with a far more talented German squad. The public even forgave Völler when - during a TV interview in September 2003 - he lost his temper, used dirty language, even attacked and yelled at the presenter Waldemar Hartmann in order to defend his team against unfair press statements.

Among German fans, Völler earned himself the affectionate nickname "Tante Käthe" ("Aunt Katie") due to his curly grey "auntie" hairdo (see photograph).

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1977-78||rowspan="3"|Kickers Offenbach||rowspan="3"|2. Bundesliga||5||1|||||||| |- |1978-79||31||11|||||||| |- |1979-80||38||7|||||||| |- |1980-81||rowspan="2"|1860 München||Bundesliga||33||9|||||||| |- |1981-82||2. Bundesliga||37||37|||||||| |- |1982-83||rowspan="5"|Werder Bremen||rowspan="5"|Bundesliga||31||23|||||||| |- |1983-84||31||18|||||||| |- |1984-85||32||25|||||||| |- |1985-86||13||9|||||||| |- |1986-87||30||22|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1987-88||rowspan="5"|Roma||rowspan="5"|Serie A||21||3|||||||| |- |1988-89||29||10|||||||| |- |1989-90||32||14|||||||| |- |1990-91||30||11|||||||| |- |1991-92||30||7|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1992-93||rowspan="2"|Olympique Marseille||rowspan="2"|Division 1||33||18|||||||| |- |1993-94||25||6|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1994-95||rowspan="2"|Bayer Leverkusen||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga||30||16|||||||| |- |1995-96||32||10|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3343||188|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 4142||45|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 458||24|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5543||257|||||||| |}

Honours

As a player

As a coach

References

  1. ^ [1]
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