Berti Vogts

Hans Hubert ("Berti") Vogts (born 30 December, 1946 in Büttgen) is a former German international football player and manager.

Playing career

Vogts joined the boys' football team of local sports club VfR Büttgen in 1954 when he was seven, staying with them until his 1965 transfer to Borussia Mönchengladbach. A right-side defender, his tenacity earned him the nickname "Der Terrier". He was one of the key figures during Borussia's golden years in the 1970s, when it won the Bundesliga five times, the German Cup once, and the UEFA Cup twice. Vogts made 419 Bundesliga appearances for Mönchengladbach, scoring 33 times. He also appeared 64 times for the club in European competition, scoring 8 goals. Vogts remained with Mönchengladbach until he retired from playing in 1979.

He was also a member of the German national team that won the 1974 World Cup. Overall he played 9 international boys' games for West Germany, made 3 appearances for the under-23s team, and has 96 senior caps, making him one of Germany's most capped players. He was captain for 20 of the senior games, and scored one international goal.

Management career

After his playing career ended, he became a coach for Germany's under-20 national team, and continued in that role until 1990. Starting in 1986, he became an assistant manager of the senior national side. In 1990, he was promoted to manager of the national team, leading Germany to a EURO 96 win. He stepped down as manager in 1998 after Germany's shock quarter-final exit at the World Cup finals in France. After some time out of managing, he was appointed manager of Bayer Leverkusen in November 2000. The following May, despite earning Bayer Leverkusen UEFA Champions League qualification, he was fired. He became manager of the Kuwait national team in August 2001.

After six months with Kuwait, Vogts resigned to assume the position of manager of the Scottish national team. During his 2½-year tenure there, the Scots' international record was poor, with home defeats by Norway and Hungary, and a humiliating 2-2 draw with the team of the tiny Faroe Islands. Although most football pundits credited much of the squad's performance to the low quality of the player pool from which Vogts had to draw, he nonetheless took the brunt of press criticism. An October 2004 draw with Moldova essentially put paid to Scotland's hopes of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, and Vogts came under renewed pressure to quit. He resigned the following month, with a year and a half remaining on his contract, citing "disgraceful abuse" from the fans and the media. He later vowed never to return to football management following this "abuse" although has not ruled out a return to football on a coaching basis. Worse was to come for Vogts when Walter Smith took charge of Scotland on 2 December 2004 and the team saw an immediate turn around in fortune; many high profile players including David Weir and Barry Ferguson spoke to the press saying that the team under Vogts suffered from "lack of direction" and "poor man management".

References

External links

Unofficial fansite (German) - Vogts has no official website
The Scottish Football Association's page on Vogts
Leverkusen who's who

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Berti Vogts

Playing career

Management career

References

External links