Klaus Toppmöller

Klaus Toppmöller

Personal information
Full name	Klaus Toppmöller
Date of birth	(1951-08-12) 12 August 1951
Place of birth	Rivenich, West Germany
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1960–1969	SV Rivenich
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1969–1972	Eintracht Trier	59	(33)
1972–1980	1. FC Kaiserslautern	204	(108)
1980	Dallas Tornado	31	(7)
1981	Calgary Boomers	0	(0)
1981–1987	FSV Salmrohr	168	(114)
International career
1976–1979	West Germany	3	(1)
Managerial career
1987–1988	FSV Salmrohr
1988–1990	SSV Ulm 1846
1990–1991	Wismut Aue
1991–1993	Waldhof Mannheim
1993–1994	Eintracht Frankfurt
1994–1999	VfL Bochum
1999–2000	1. FC Saarbrücken
2001–2003	Bayer Leverkusen
2003–2004	Hamburger SV
2006–2008	Georgia
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Klaus Toppmöller (born 12 August 1951) is a former football player and the coach of Georgia national football team from 2006 to 1 April 2008.

Playing career

Toppmöller scored 108 Bundesliga goals for 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 204 matches in the West German top flight. He earned 3 caps and scored 1 goal during his international career for West Germany.

Coaching career

Toppmöller became coach of FSV Salmrohr from summer 1987 to 18 April 1988 when he became coach of SSV Ulm 1846 until February 1989. After his dismissal, Toppmöller coached East German second division side side FC Erzgebirge Aue from 28 November 1990 to 30 June 1991. He then transferred back to the Federal league with SV Waldhof Mannheim from 19 September 1991 to 30 June 1993.

In light of his success, Toppmöller became coach of Eintracht Frankfurt, with whom he had a very successful start. But after failures with the squad relationship and resultantly missing the championship he was dismissed on 10 April 1994. Toppmöller then joined VfL Bochum on 9 November 1994, with whom in the 1997/98 season reached the last sixteen of the UEFA cup. On 30 June 1999 Toppmöller left his position as coach of VfL Bochum, but was eventually dismissed on 29 November 2000.

From 1 July 2001 Toppmöller was coach with Bayer 04 Leverkusen, whom in his first season led to the final of the UEFA Champions League, as well as second place in federal league and the German cup final. Toppmöller was resultantly declared by German sports journalists as "football coach of the year" for 2002. However, in the following season Leverkusen performed poorly, and in light of a poor league position which could have led to relegation, Toppmöller was sacked on 16 February 2003.

Toppmöller became coach of Hamburger SV on 23 October 2003. However, after the team fell to last place in the league, and Toppmöller used strange tactics, formations and out of position players (such as midfielder Sergej Barbarez in defence), he was sacked on 17 October 2004.

On 1 February 2006 Toppmöller became national coach of the Georgia national football team, with Ralf Minge as assistant coach. He was dismissed on 1 April 2008.

Career statistics

As of 26 March 2008

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
FSV Salmrohr	1 April 1987	18 April 1988
Ulm 1846	19 April 1988	28 February 1989
Erzgebirge Aue	28 November 1990	30 June 1991
Waldhof Mannheim	19 September 1991	30 June 1993
Eintracht Frankfurt	1 July 1993	10 April 1994	44	23	7	14	52.27
VfL Bochum	9 November 1994	30 June 1999	175	67	38	70	38.29
1.FC Saarbrücken	1 July 1999	29 November 2000
Bayer Leverkusen	27 June 2001	16 February 2003	95	47	16	32	49.47
Hamburger SV	23 October 2003	17 October 2004	40	16	6	18	40.00
Georgia	1 January 2006	2 April 2008	25	7	4	14	28.00
Total			379	160	71	148	42.22

Honours

As a player

• DFB-Pokal finalist: 1976.
• Bundesliga 3rd place: 1979, 1980.

As a coach

• Champions League finalist: 2002.
• Bundesliga runner-up: 2002.
• DFB-Pokal finalist: 2002.

External links

• NASL career stats
• Klaus Toppmöller at weltfussball.de (German)
• (German) Klaus Toppmöller at fussballdaten.de