Ernst Happel

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Ernst Happel (November 29, 1925 – November 14, 1992) was an Austrian football player and coach.

[edit] Player

Happel was capped 51 times for the Austrian national team, where he reached the 3rd place at the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland. On the club level he played 14 years for Rapid Vienna, from 1943 till 1954 and 1956 till 1959, winning the Austrian Championship title 7 times. The 2 years in between Happel played for Racing Club de Paris in France.

[edit] Coach

After retiring as a player, Happel went on to become possibly the greatest coach of all time. He won the league title in four different countries, in Europe a unique achievement. He also took two different clubs to gold in the European Champions' Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) and Holland to second place in the 1978 World Cup. His first club was ADO Den Haag in 1962, where he won the Dutch Cup in 1968. After Den Haag he coached Feyenoord, where he won the Dutch championship in 1971, as well as the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 1970.

At the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, Happel was coach of the Dutch national team and reached the final against the Argentine national team. Always a man of few words, Happel's pre-match pep talk is said to have consisted of just one sentence: "Gentlemen, two points."

During his career as coach Happel worked for several clubs, including Sevilla, Club Brugge (winning the Belgian Championship title several times) and Hamburg (1981 - 1987, German champions in 1982 and 1983, German Cup winner 1987).

In 1983 he won the European Cup again, 13 years after the triumph with Feyenoord Rotterdam, this time with Hamburg. He is the only coach in the history of the European Cup (now called UEFA Champions League), besides Ottmar Hitzfeld, to win the title with two different clubs.

In 1987 Happel returned to Austria as coach of FC Swarovski Tirol. With FC Tirol he won the Austrian Championship title 2 times (1989 and 1990) before becoming coach of the Austrian national team in 1992.

After his death the biggest football stadium in Austria, the Praterstadion in Vienna, was renamed Ernst Happel Stadion. He died of cancer in 1992 aged 66.

Preceded by Nereo Rocco	European Cup Winning Coach 1969-70	Succeeded by Rinus Michels
Preceded by Tony Barton	European Cup Winning Coach 1982-83	Succeeded by Joe Fagan
Preceded by Jaak De Wit	Club Brugge Coach 1974-1978	Succeeded by Andreas Beres

	Netherlands squad - 1978 FIFA World Cup Runners-up
1 Schrijvers | 2 Poortvliet | 3 Schoenaker | 4 van Kraay | 5 Krol | 6 Jansen | 7 Wildschut | 8 Jongbloed | 9 Haan | 10 R. van de Kerkhof | 11 W. van de Kerkhof | 12 Rensenbrink | 13 Neeskens | 14 Boskamp | 15 Hovenkamp | 16 Rep | 17 Rijsbergen | 18 Nanninga | 19 Doesburg | 20 Suurbier | 21 Lubse | 22 Brandts | Coach: Happel