Legend of "Cologne" Pierre Littbarsky

Pierre Littbarski is the real legend of "Cologne" and the German national team of the eighties. This football player acted as an attacking midfielder and almost all his career spent in the "goats". Unfortunately, he could not win a lot of top trophies, but at the same time he remembered all his incredible style of play. How was the career of this player? In which clubs did Pierre Littbarski speak and what does he do after the end of his career?

The beginning of his career and flourishing in "Cologne"

Already at the age of seven, the little boy Pierre Littbarski found himself at the academy of the German club Schöneberg, where he spent almost a decade before moving to the more impressive Hertha academy from Tselendorf. There he spent three years, but when it was time to sign a professional contract, the eighteen-year-old boy received an offer from "Cologne", which he could not refuse. So in 1978, Pierre was in a club with whom he linked almost all his career. In the first season, he spent only half of the possible matches, that is, sixteen, scoring four goals. But already next year, Pierre Littbarski became the main player of "Cologne", his leader, heart and motor. Eight years he spent in the "goats", and only in 1986, when he was 26 years old, midfielder decided to go to another club, not in Germany, but beyond. At that time, Littbarski had 234 matches for "Cologne" and 89 goals, which was an impressive figure.

Going to Racing

At that time, for the players were not yet paying incredible sums, so the equivalent of a modern 1.4 million euro was so impressive that the transfer of Littbarski entered the top ten most expensive transfers of that year. And the player was worth the money - so incredible he showed football. Pierre Littbarsky, however, spent only one year in Racing for playing 34 games and scoring 4 goals. What happened then? The thing is that "Cologne" decided to return its legend, paying the French club a little more than was spent a year ago. As a result, Pierre returned to Germany, the camp of "goats", with whom in 1983 he won the German Cup.

Return to Cologne

In the "Cologne" midfielder, of course, immediately got a place in the base and spent another six years, and not winning more than a single trophy. However, he won the status of a true hero, who is still considered to be Pierre Littbarski. The statistics of this player in this club is incredible - 406 games and 116 goals. At the moment he is the third player in the number of matches held for the team - he is ahead of only Tony Schumacher and Wolfgang Overath. The same goes for the number of goals scored - Pierre, again, was in third place in the whole history, losing to Hannes Laura and Dieter Müller. Why, six years after returning from France, Littbarski scored so few goals? The fact is that initially he played on the position of the drawn forward, but eventually became an attacking midfielder, and his task was not the completion of attacks, but their creation.

Japanese period

However, Littbarski did not finish his career at Cologne. In 1993, at the age of 33, he moved to the Japanese club "United Ichihara", where he played two seasons, after 74 games and scoring 12 goals. After that, Pierre reflected on the completion of his career and even took up the duties of the youth coach of the Japanese club, but in 1996 he decided to play one more year - he played 37 games for Vegalta Sendai club and scored 6 goals. After that, in 1997, at the age of 37, Pierre Littbarsky announced the completion of his professional career.

Coaching activities

To date, Littbarski has worked in the FC Wolfsburg, but before that he changed many more than one club. Until December 2000, he coached Japanese clubs, and then returned to Germany, to the Leverkusen "Bayer" as assistant coach Berti Vogts. He then coached Duisburg from 2001 to 2002, returned to Japan for three years to head up Yokohama again, moved from there to Australia's Sydney for a year, and from 2007 to 2008 coached the next Japanese club, Avsip Fukuoku ". Then he was at the helm of the Iranian club "Saipa" and even managed to train the club "Vaduz" from Liechtenstein for two years. And already in 2010 Littbarski returned to Germany, in FC "Wolfsburg", where he became an assistant to Steve McClaren. He worked in this position before the dismissal of the Scotsman, and then for a month served as head coach - before the arrival of Felix Magath, from whom he again became an assistant. And when Magat was fired in early 2012, Litbarski decided to change the direction of his activities - he got the position of the main scout in the club and holds it up to now.