Wolfgang Rolff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang Rolff
Personal information
Full name	Wolfgang Rolff
Date of birth	December 26, 1959
Place of birth	Lamstedt, Germany
Height	179 cm
Position	midfielder
Club information
Current club	retired
Youth clubs
	TSV Lamstedt OSC Bremerhaven
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1979-1980 1980-1982 1982-1986 1986-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1997	OSC Bremerhaven SC Fortuna Köln Hamburger SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen RC Strasbourg Bayer 05 Uerdingen Karlsruher SC 1. FC Köln SC Fortuna Köln VfR Krefeld-Fischeln	35 (6) 75 (17) 129 (24) 99 (9) 30 (4) 20 (0) 94 (14) 14 (0) 16 (2)
National team**
1983-1989	West Germany	37 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 30, 1997. ** National team caps and goals correct as of June 30, 1997.

Wolfgang Rolff (born December 26, 1959) is a German football manager and former player.

[edit] Career as player

Wolfgang Rolff played in 356 Bundesliga matches (47 goals) for Hamburger SV, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Bayer 05 Uerdingen, Karlsruher SC and 1. FC Köln. He further took part in 126 2nd Bundesliga matches (23 goals) for OSC Bremerhaven and SC Fortuna Köln, having a spell in France with RC Strasbourg for whom he scored 4 goals in 30 games in Ligue 2. In his years with his clubs he won the German Bundesliga title with Hamburg in 1983 and was part of the Hamburg side that clinched the European Cup against Juventus in Athens the same summer, five years later he won the UEFA Cup with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1988.

Reputed as a tireless midfielder, Rolff debuted for West Germany in 1983 and was part of the 1984 UEFA European Football Championship and the 1988 UEFA European Football Championship squad of his nation. On both occasions he featured twice each in games of West Germany, making also two appearances for the West Germans in their runner-up campaign at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. In total he played in 37 caps until 1989.

[edit] Career as manager

His former Hamburg team-mate Felix Magath appointed Rolff as assistant at Hamburger SV in 1997. In 1998 Rolff took sole charge of SV Meppen for six months until the clubs relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga. He went on working as assistant to his former Karlsruhe manager Winfried Schäfer at VfB Stuttgart and was, shortly after, named caretaker manager of Die Schwaben. In 2000-2001 he worked in the coaching staff of former Germany coach Berti Vogts during Vogts' reign as manager of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, also one of Rolff's ex-clubs. Subsequent to Vogts' departure from Leverkusen in 2001, Rolff worked as assistant to Vogts after Vogts had been hired to guide Kuwait. Rolff did not follow Vogts to Scotland, indeed, and was in July 2004 employed by SV Werder Bremen as assistant manager.

	West Germany squad - 1986 World Cup Runner-up
1 Schumacher | 2 Briegel | 3 Brehme | 4 Förster | 5 Herget | 6 Eder | 7 Littbarski | 8 Matthäus | 9 Völler | 10 Magath | 11 Rummenigge | 12 Stein | 13 Allgöwer | 14 Berthold | 15 Augenthaler | 16 Thon | 17 Jakobs | 18 Rahn | 19 Allofs | 20 Hoeneß | 21 Rolff | 22 Immel | Coach: Beckenbauer