Erich Ribbeck

Erich Ribbeck

Personal information
Date of birth	(1937-06-13) 13 June 1937
Place of birth	Wuppertal, Germany
Height
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
	SSV 1904 Wuppertal
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1959–1962	Wuppertaler SV
1962–1965	Viktoria Köln
Managerial career
1965–1967	Borussia Mönchengladbach (assistant)
1967–1968	Rot-Weiss Essen
1968–1973	Eintracht Frankfurt
1973–1978	1. FC Kaiserslautern
1978–1984	West Germany (assistant)
1984–1985	Borussia Dortmund
1985–1988	Bayer Leverkusen
1992–1993	Bayern Munich
1995–1996	Bayer Leverkusen
1998–2000	Germany
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Erich Ribbeck (born 13 June 1937 in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a former German footballer and manager, best known for coaching in the German Bundesliga.

Biography

As a player, Ribbeck had a career spanning most of the 1950s into the early 1960s with SSV 1904 Wuppertal, which has since merged with TSG Vohwinkel to form Wuppertaler SV. The highest level Ribbeck played was the Oberliga, part of the first tier of Germany which was then split into five regional divisions.

Club management

His very first coaching position he held at the age of 30 in 1967/68, when he took Rot-Weiss Essen to the second place in the western division of Germany's Level 2 league and thus to the promotion tournament, where the club ended up losing out against Hertha Berlin.

The next ten years he shared evenly with engagements with Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. In the Bundesliga these clubs remained on mediocre levels during his tenure. With Kaiserlautern he reached the German Cup final of 1976, losing 0–2 to Hamburger SV.

He achieved his only trophy when he won the UEFA Cup 1988 with Bayer Leverkusen. In the finals Leverkusen came back from 0–3 away to Espanyol Barcelona to win the eventual penalty shoot-out at home.

He was also runner-up in the German Championship of 1993 with Bayern Munich.

National team

Erich Ribbeck was originally considered as a candidate for the national team manager role after the resignation of Helmut Schön in 1978. Instead, Jupp Derwall was selected and it was not until 20 years later on 9 September 1998 that Ribbeck emerged from retirement in the Canary Islands to take over the German national team when other candidates had declined. At 61, he was the oldest appointee to the job. His two-year tenure marked the worst period in the modern history of Germany's national side. Ribbeck resigned after a string of results culminating in a group-stage exit from Euro 2000. Ribbeck resigned on 21 June 2000.

His results as Germany's coach were 10 wins, six draws, and eight losses, the worst managerial performance of all time for a coach of the German national team.

Retirement

These days Ribbeck shares his residence between Pulheim and Tenerife.

Career statistics

As of 22 January 2014

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %	Ref.
Rot-Weiss Essen	1 July 1967	30 June 1968	42	25	11	6	59.52
Eintracht Frankfurt	1 July 1968	30 June 1973	203	83	41	79	40.89
1. FC Kaiserslautern	1 July 1973	30 June 1978	192	85	32	75	44.27
Borussia Dortmund	28 October 1984	30 June 1985	25	10	4	11	40.00
Bayer Leverkusen	1 July 1985	30 June 1988	125	53	36	36	42.40
Bayern Munich	12 March 1992	27 December 1993	75	37	22	16	49.33
Bayer Leverkusen	10 April 1995	28 April 1996	48	17	18	13	35.42
Germany	9 September 1998	21 June 2000	24	10	6	8	41.67
Total			734	320	170	244	43.60	—

Honours

Managerial honours

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

• UEFA Cup: 1987–88

See also

• List of UEFA Cup winning managers

External links

• Erich Ribbeck at eintracht-archiv.de