Ernst Happel, the legend of Vienna strategist

For me, everything was worth it, and I do not regret anything "

Ernst Happel, a former football coach

Reading Ernst Happel come to your memory, possibly, the fond memories of a June 29, 2008, when the Spanish team won the Austrian camp of the same name Euro to Germany. It is also the stadium where Ajax achieved in 1995 the last European Cup against Milan, when the Dutch team was led by Van Gaal. But who is behind that name? Neither more nor less than the first coach to win the European Cup with two different teams, a milestone that only Hitzfeld and Mourinho have been able to repeat, and one of the most successful technicians in the history of European football. Know your history:

He was still coach and made ​​a name in the golden book of football history, but it was not any player. He began playing professionally in 1943 in his country, Austria, when he was one of the hardest hit by the Second World War. In Rapid Vienna, his hometown, would remain until 1954, won five league and cup game in the axle of the rear. He left the club of their lives to emigrate to the Racing Club of Paris, where he would continue proving to be a great defense. In France he played two seasons before returning to Rapid to play three more years until retirement. Interestingly scored more goals in those three years than in the previous stage. He wore also the national sheepskin 51 times.

Happel knew then that his place would be on the bench, but it was not until three years when he could finally take the reins of a club. It was in 1962 when he was hired by the ADO Den Haag, The Hague Dutch club. They begin to learn the intricacies of the profession and to forge his legend for six years. The latter won the first FIFA Club in its history.

In 1968 he changed his club but not country when he was signed to a major: Feyenoord. His stay in Rotterdam for success was plagued in its first year won league and cup, but the greatest of them come next year when he won the European Cup after defeating the club in the final to Celtic. The following season to win the Intercontinental Estudiantes de la Plata and reeditaría the league title.

In 1973 he left the Dutch club to train in the Spanish league in the ranks of Seville, Seville when the club was going through difficult times in the category of silver. It would be unheard of today that the European champions a technician decided to train at second. However, his time in our league was perhaps the worst moment of his career, it did not return to the elite club after year and a half on his stool.

But he would soon return to winning ways in 1975 when he moved to Bruges in Belgium. In three years he won three league titles and a glass, as well as qualify for the club to the final of the European Cup in 1978, which would fall to defeat against Liverpool Bob Paisley. However, that end is to date the largest international landmark Belgian club. That same summer of 1978 took over the Dutch in the World Cup in Argentina, where from the beginning had the disadvantage of not having its undisputed star, Johan Cruyff, who did not attend after an attempt to kidnap his family.

Thus combined took the reins of the last World Cup finalist and representative of the new total football. On that basis, Happel designed his team, not as spectacular but equally effective, more strategic, where physical strength went hand in hand with the talent and the backlash was used as a deadly instrument of attack. It was a much less defensive techniques: Happel said at the time that rather win by 5-4 to 1-0. With Van de Kerkhof twins and Neeskens as some of its stars, the Netherlands stood in the final, losing to Argentina in one of the most controversial end of the story.

After surprising back to train for a year to accept the modest Belgian Harelbeke and after a quiet passage of two years by Standard Liege, where he did not raise any title came in 1981 to Hamburg, where he wrote the mejorpgnine the history of the German club. After a golden era with Kevin Keegan as a star in which they won the Cup Winners Cup, Happel joined the club a year after the march of English as a midfielder Felix Magath, now coach of Wolfsburg, the flagship club in addition to the front Horst Hrubesch.

In six years old managed to lift two Volksparkstadion Bundesliga, German Cup and, above all, the only European Cup club. In 1983, after dropping out in the semifinals and beat Real Sociedad at the end of Trapattoni at Juventus in a game by strategically perfect team Happel. Juventus were active at that six of the world champions Italy a year earlier (Dino Zoff, Paolo Rossi, Cabrini, Scirea, Tardelli and Gentile) in addition to Poland and the star Boniek, Michel Platini, who was neutralized by the network technician Vienna. The Hambug won 1-0 with both Magath.

In 1987, after a slump in the German club, returned home to train Tirol Innsbruck, where he won two league titles in four years and a drink. He retired in 1992 after coaching the Austrian national team, the same year that died of cancer at age 66. It was that year when the stadium was renamed Vienna Prater with its name, where his legend remains alive and home selection and the big teams in European competitions because of its capacity (53,008 spectators), such as Austria and Rapid Vienna Vienna. Club the latter, your life and where he spent most of his playing career, which never trained. This is the story of Ernst Happel, one of the best coaches in football history.

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Photos | FIFA. com | Luca Scotellaro
Ernst Happel phrases in FIFA. com