September 16 – Rudi Gutendorf, the globetrotting German who is in the Guinness Book of Records for having coached 55 teams in 32 countries across five continents from Antigua to Zimbabwe, has died aged 93.
Gutendorf’s managerial career spanned half a century, including time at top-flight teams in his native Germany and 18 national sides that included Australia, China and Fiji.
‘Restless Rudi’ , as he was dubbed, was born in Koblenz and enjoyed a nine-year playing career for his home-town club TuS Koblenz after World War II. After taking a coaching course, he secured his first management role with Swiss side Blue Stars Zurich in the 1950s. His final job in management was with Samoa in 2003.
In Africa, Gutendorf managed no fewer than seven countries – Botswana, Tanzania, Sao Tome e Principe, Ghana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
When at Rwanda in 1999-2000 the country was still recovering from the 1994 civil war in which up to a million people were slaughtered. “Such hate, you cannot believe. I was able to unite these two tribes to play football, and good football,” he said in a 2013 interview referring to the mixed Rwandan team of Hutu and Tutsi players.
German vice-president Dr Rainer Koch called him an “outstanding ambassador of German football”.
To put his remarkable career in perspective here is a full list of the teams he coached:
1955 Blue Stars Zürich
1955–1961 FC Lucern
1961 US Monastir
1963–1964 Duisburg
1965–1966 Stuttgart
1968 St Louis Stars
1968 Bermuda
1968–1970 Schalke
1970–1971 Kickers Offenbach
1971 Sporting Cristal
1972–1973 Chile
1974 Bolivia
1974 Venezuela
1974 1860 Munich
1975 Real Valladolid
1975–1976 Fortuna Cologne
1976 Trinidad & Tobago
1976 Grenada
1976 Antigua & Barbuda
1976 Botswana
1977 Hamburg
1979–1981 Australia
1981 New Caledonia
1981 Nepal
1981 Tonga
1981 Tanzania
1983 Fiji
1984 Hertha Berlin
1984 Sao Tome & Príncipe
1984–1985 Yomiuri SC
1985–1986 Ghana
1986 Nepal
1987 Fiji
1988 China
1988 Iran U-23
1991–1992 China
1993 Mauritius
1995–1996 Zimbabwe
1997 Mauritius
1999 Rwanda
2003 Samoa
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