Pierre Littbarski

Pierre Littbarski

Personal information
Full name	Pierre Littbarski
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder, Striker, Winger
Team information
Current team	Avispa Fukuoka (manager)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 30, 1990

Pierre Littbarski (born April 16, 1960) is a German football manager and former player, and was a FIFA World Cup winner with West Germany in 1990. He was also runner up twice in 1982 and 1986 with West Germany. He was born in Berlin.

Life and work

Littbarski spent most of his playing career at 1. FC Köln, winning the German Cup once, in 1983, and was three times runner up in the Bundesliga (1982, 1989 and 1990). He has also played for Racing Club de Paris in Ligue 1 as well as for JEF United and Brummel Sendai in Japan. In his career, he was initially used as a striker before being utilised as an attacking midfielder. "Litti", as he was nicknamed by german fans, was widely known for his excellent dribbling abilities and humorous attitude, being one of the fan favourites in german Bundesliga during this decade.

He was manager of Australian A-League side Sydney FC, and lead them to the FIFA Club World Championship in 2005, and a win in the inaugural A-League Championship. He was famous amongst Sydney FC supporters for his stylish brown suits [1][2]. Sydney under Littbarski were often criticised for boring, unimaginative football, but the results could seldom be argued with and Sydney FC went on to claim the innaugral A-League Championship under his reign. Littbarski and Sydney FC severed ties on Wednesday, May 5, 2006, with Littbarski announcing he would not re-sign for the club following disputes over training locations and a cut-price contract offer.

In December 2006, Littbarski was appointed the manager of Avispa Fukuoka, a J-League side that was newly demoted to the second division after the 2006 season.

Previously, he has been the manager of Yokohama FC (twice), as well as assistant manager of Bayer 04 Leverkusen and manager of MSV Duisburg.

In October 2007, Littbarski announced his interest in taking the managerial vacancy at Norwich City F.C., possibly with his current assistant, former City player Ian Crook.

Club career

• July 1978 - June 1986:  1. FC Köln
• July 1986 - June 1987:  Racing Club de Paris
• July 1987 - June 1993:  1. FC Köln
• July 1993 - June 1995:  JEF United Ichihara
• 1996 - 1997:  Brummel Sendai

International playing career

73 internationals for West Germany - 18 goals.

• 1982 World Cup:  Runners Up
• 1984 European Championship:  First Round
• 1986 World Cup:  Runners Up
• 1988 European Championship:  Semi Finalists
• 1990 World Cup:  Champions

German U21 side: 21 internationals

Managerial career

• 1999 - 2000:  Yokohama FC
• 2001:  Bayer Leverkusen (Assistant Manager)
• June 2001 - November 2002:  MSV Duisburg
• July 2003 - June 2004:  Yokohama FC
• February 2005 - May 2006:  Sydney FC
• December 2006 -:  Avispa Fukuoka

Trivia

• His wife is Japanese and they have two sons. He is fluent in Japanese.

External links

• Sydney FC signs Pierre Littbarski as Head Coach [3].
• Leverkusen who's who
• [4] Pierre Littbarski blog