Uli Stielike

Uli Stielike

Uli Stielike in 2012
Personal information
Full nameUlrich Stielike
Date of birth15 November 1954
Place of birthKetsch, West Germany
Height1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Playing positionMidfielder / Sweeper
Club information
Current team
South Korea (manager)
Youth career
1962–1972SpVgg Ketsch
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1972–1977Borussia Mönchengladbach109(12)
1977–1985Real Madrid215(41)
1985–1988Neuchâtel Xamax66(0)
Total390(53)
National team
1972–1973West Germany Youth16(0)
1973–1975West Germany Amateur10(3)
1975–1984West Germany42(3)
Teams managed
1989–1991Switzerland
1992–1994Neuchâtel Xamax
1994–1995SV Waldhof Mannheim
1996UD Almería
1998–2000Germany (assistant)
2000–2006Germany (U19 / U20 / U21)
2006–2008Ivory Coast
2008FC Sion
2008–2010Al-Arabi
2010–2012Al-Sailiya
2013–2014Al-Arabi
2014–South Korea
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Ulrich "Uli" Stielike, affectionately known as 'The Stopper', (born 15 November 1954) is a former German footballer who is the current manager of South Korea national football team. Usually a central midfielder or sweeper, Stielike was well known for his stamina and footballing intelligence.[2] Stielike is one of a small handful of players (Rainer Bonhof and Manfred Kaltz are others) to have played in all 3 European club finals (the European Cup/Champions League, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup), the World Cup Final and the European Championship Final.

Playing career

Club career

Stielike was a West Germany youth international for hometown club SpVgg Ketsch when he got signed by UEFA Cup runner-up Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1973, first coming to action as a full back for the then two times German Bundesliga champion. Playing in defending midfield for his club, afterwards, he was part of the Mönchengladbach team that won the Bundesliga titles in 1975, 1976 and 1977, the UEFA Cup in 1975 and gained a runner-up medal in the European Cup in 1977 following a 1–3 against Liverpool F.C. in Rome.

Ahead of the 1977–78 season, Stielike moved on to join Real Madrid to become a reliable fan-favourite in his eight years with Los merengues. His first three seasons at Santiago Bernabéu all ended in Real winning La Liga. In 1980 and 1982, he was part of the side winning Copa del Rey, in 1985 he added the Copa de la Liga, and finished off his Madrid years with the UEFA Cup triumph of the same summer.

Following representatives votes of Spanish paper Don Balón, Stielike was four times 'Best Foreign Player' in La Liga between 1978 and 1981.

In 1985, Stielike joined Neuchâtel Xamax and won two Swiss Super League trophies in 1987 and 1988 with the club.

Stielike retired from his playing career in 1988.

International career

Stielike was capped in 42 internationals with West Germany from 1975 to 1984[3] with whom he won 1980 UEFA European Football Championship and the runner-up medal at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.[4] Stielike did not feature for his country in the 1978 FIFA World Cup after the German Football Association under Hermann Neuberger had temporarily decided to force their coaches not to select players playing their club football outside the Bundesliga. A central figure for the defence of Real Madrid in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Stielike could just partially live up to those expectations in his duties for West Germany. Early hopes had been that he could be the ideal successor of legendary sweeper Franz Beckenbauer, with whom he played in a few internationals in the 1970s. Stielike played in the now legendary semi-final match of the 1982 world cup, which ended in a 3–3 draw, resulting in penalties. A poignant scene in the penalty shooutout showed the young Pierre Littbarski consoling a tearful Stielike, who missed a penalty, burying his head in Littbarski's shirt, as West Germany's goalkeeper, Harald Schumacher saved Didier Six's penalty to even the score, with the Germans eventually winning 5–4 on penalties. To date, Stielike is the only German player to have missed a penalty in the penalty shootout of a major international tournament. West Germany lost 3–1 to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final.

Stielike's final appearance for his country took place against Argentina (1–3) in September 1984 in Beckenbauer's first match in charge of West Germany. Over those years Stielike scored three, the latest in a 3–2 win over Bulgaria in Varna in February 1984. Shortly after that, he was part of Jupp Derwall's squad for the 1984 UEFA European Football Championship.

Managerial career

After retirement from his playing career, Stielike was the coach of the Switzerland national football team from 1989 to 1991 as successor of Daniel Jeandupeux and predecessor of Roy Hodgson.

From 1994 to 1996, Stielike also had managerial spells at club level with UD Almería in Spain and SV Waldhof Mannheim in the 2nd Bundesliga, Germany.

In 1998, Stielike had been interviewed by Egidius Braun, the then chairman of the German Football Association, following a vacancy occurred through the resignation of Berti Vogts from the head coaching job of Germany in 1998. He believed Braun would offer him the succession of Vogts, consequently heading into an interview with Kicker (Sports magazine) in this (mistaken) belief. After further talks with Braun had proved Stielike wrong and let him just end up as assistant coach, Stielike had to take some remarks (e.g. concerning Andreas Möller) back.

From 9 September 1998 to 7 May 2000, Stielike had been the assistant to then Germany coach Erich Ribbeck. Shortly before 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, which ended in a disaster for the Germans, Stielike stepped down from his role as assistant due to differences in some respects with Ribbeck. He was replaced by Horst Hrubesch for the tournament.

Stielike spent six years working with different youth teams (i.e. the U21 side until 2004) of Germany and manager of Germany national under-20 football team of 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship and 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.

On 14 September 2006, Stielike penned a contract with to take over the Ivory Coast national football team in succession of Frenchman Henri Michel, subsequent to the elimination of the team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Stielike stepped down as Les Éléphants coach on 7 January 2008 due to his son's alarming ill health.[5] On 1 February, Michael Stielike, 23, died after failing to receive a lung transplant, with his health gradually deteriorating until he was eventually put on life support.[6]

On 31 May 2008, he agreed to coach Swiss side FC Sion,[7][8] but was fired on 3 November 2008. On 5 January 2009 he then signed a contract with Al-Arabi Sports Club.[9]

On 5 September 2014, Stielike was named as the newly appointed manager of South Korea national football team. His contract is through the 2018 World Cup. In his first game in charge, South Korea defeated Paraguay 2–0 in a friendly match. His side began its 2015 AFC Asian Cup campaign with a 1–0 win over Oman. This was continued with two wins with the same scoreline over Kuwait and hosts Australia. South Korea qualified to the knockout stage as group winners with nine points and faced Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals. Though the game remained 0–0 for the first 90 minutes, two goals from Son Heung Min in extra time helped South Korea reach the semi-finals. South Korea played in the semi-finals against Iraq and won the match 2–0. South Korea finished the tournament as runners-up after losing to Australia 2–1 in the final.

Managerial statistics

As of 31 January 2015
Team From To Record
M W D L GF GA GD Win %
Switzerland 5 April 1989 22 December 1991 28 13 5 10 49 30 +19 46.43
Neuchâtel Xamax January 1992 July 1994 86 30 31 25 118 91 +27 34.88
Waldhof Mannheim July 1994 July 1995 36 14 17 5 51 37 +14 38.89
Almería February 1996 July 1996 16 5 6 5 26 22 +4 31.25
Germany U-21 8 May 2000 1 January 2004 30 21 1 8 42 18 +24 70.00
Germany U-20 17 June 2001 5 December 2003 7 3 0 4 12 11 +1 42.86
Germany U-19 1 January 2004 1 January 2006 19 10 9 0 29 5 +24 52.63
Ivory Coast 14 September 2006 7 January 2008 15 11 2 2 37 7 +30 73.33
FC Sion 31 May 2008 3 November 2008 15 5 4 6 24 28 -4 33.33
Al-Arabi 31 December 2008 30 June 2010 46 21 8 17 93 76 +17 45.65
Al-Sailiya 1 July 2010 8 October 2012 56 22 12 22 82 93 -11 39.29
Al-Arabi 5 June 2013 28 January 2014 28 14 5 9 51 42 +9 50.00
South Korea 7 September 2014 Present 13 9 1 3 16 7 +9 69.23

South Korea results

# Date Venue Opponent Result Goalscorers Competition
2014
1 October 10, 2014 South Korea Cheonan, South Korea  Paraguay 2–0 Kim Min-woo, Nam Tae-hee Friendly
2 October 14, 2014 South Korea Seoul, South Korea  Costa Rica 1–3 Lee Dong-gook Friendly
3 November 14, 2014 Jordan Amman, Jordan  Jordan 1–0 Han Kyo-won Friendly
4 November 18, 2014 Iran Tehran, Iran  Iran 0–1 Friendly
2015
5 January 4, 2015 Australia Sydney, Australia  Saudi Arabia 2-0 Osama Hawsawi (OG), Lee Jung-hyup Friendly
6 January 10, 2015 Australia Canberra, Australia  Oman 1-0 Cho Young-cheol 2015 AFC Asian Cup
7 January 13, 2015 Australia Canberra, Australia  Kuwait 1-0 Nam Tae-hee 2015 AFC Asian Cup
8 January 17, 2015 Australia Brisbane, Australia  Australia 1-0 Lee Jung-hyup 2015 AFC Asian Cup
9 January 22, 2015 Australia Melbourne, Australia  Uzbekistan 2-0 (a.e.t) Son Heung-min (2) 2015 AFC Asian Cup
10 January 26, 2015 Australia Sydney, Australia  Iraq 2-0 Lee Jung-hyup, Kim Young-gwon 2015 AFC Asian Cup
11 January 31, 2015 Australia Sydney, Australia  Australia 1-2 (a.e.t) Son Heung-min 2015 AFC Asian Cup
12 March 27, 2015 South Korea Daejeon, South Korea  Uzbekistan 1-1 Koo Ja-cheol Friendly
13 March 31, 2015 South Korea Seoul, South Korea  New Zealand 1-0 Lee Jae-sung Friendly
14 June 11, 2015 South Korea Seoul, South Korea  United Arab Emirates Friendly
15 June 16, 2015 TBD, TBD  Myanmar 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
16 August 2, 2015 China Wuhan, China  China PR 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup
17 August 5, 2015 China Wuhan, China  Japan 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup
18 August 9, 2015 China Wuhan, China  North Korea 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup
19 September 3, 2015 South Korea Seoul, South Korea  Laos 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
20 September 8, 2015 Lebanon Beirut, Lebanon  Lebanon 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
21 October 8, 2015 South Korea Seoul, South Korea  Kuwait 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
22 November 12, 2015 TBD, TBD  Myanmar 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round

Honours

As a player

Club

Borussia Mönchengladbach
Real Madrid
Neuchâtel Xamax

International

Germany

As a manager

International

South Korea

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Uli Stielike.
  1. ↑ Uli Stielike
  2. ↑ Radnedge, Keir. (2004). The Complete Encyclopedia of Football. London, United Kingdom.
  3. ↑ Ulrich 'Uli' Stielike – International Appearances. Rsssf.com (16 October 2004). Retrieved on 2014-08-18.
  4. ↑ FIFA Player Statistics: Uli STIELIKE. FIFA.com (12 August 2014). Retrieved on 2014-08-18.
  5. ↑ Ivory Coast have temporarily replaced coach Uli Stielike. New York Times. 8 January 2008.
  6. ↑ Latest News. Fifa.com.
  7. ↑ L'invité: Uli Stielike. rts.ch. 14 November 2009
  8. ↑ 20 minutes – Ulrich Stielike reprend Sion – Football. 20min.ch. Retrieved on 18 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Happy Birthday to you!. FIFA.com. 15 November 2009