Jürgen Kohler

Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a German former professional footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. He is currently the U17 manager of Bonner SC. During his playing career, he won the World Cup with the German national team in 1990 and the European Championship in 1996. At club level, he won the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup, three German championships, and one Italian championship as a player of Bayern Munich, Juventus Turin and Borussia Dortmund.

Playing career Club Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the highest level with exactly 500 top flight league matches, playing primarily as a centre back in the German Bundesliga, and in the Italian Serie A, achieving notable success both at domestic and international level with FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus.

Kohler's professional career began at Waldhof Mannheim, where he made his Bundesliga debut as a substitute against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in April 1984. His first professional goal came in a 5–2 defeat of FC Schalke 04 on 26 January 1985.

A two-year spell at 1. FC Köln preceded a transfer to Bayern Munich, with the Bavarian club winning the Bundesliga championship in his first season at the club.

In 1991, Kohler transferred to Italian club Juventus. After being named Serie A's best foreign player for 1992, he went on to be part of the team that won the 1992–93 UEFA Cup against Borussia Dortmund, as well as a league and cup double in the 1994–95 season. After losing possession to Tomasson on the edge of Dortmund's penalty area, Kohler tripped the Danish forward inside the area to concede a penalty kick and was given a straight red card by referee Vítor Melo Pereira. Pierre van Hooijdonk scored the opening goal from the resulting penalty and BVB went on to lose the match 3–2.

International At international level, Kohler made over 100 appearances for the Germany national team, playing at three FIFA World Cups and three UEFA European Championships, winning the 1990 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1996.

Coaching career After his playing career was over, he has managed the German under-21 side, and became sports director of Bayer Leverkusen on 31 March 2003, quitting this post on 29 June 2004.

On 17 December 2005, he was appointed the coach of MSV Duisburg.

In August 2006, he turned down the opportunity to coach the Ivory Coast national team.

On 28 August 2008, Kohler signed a three-year contract as manager of German 3. Liga club VfR Aalen. However, on 16 November 2008, he retired due to a heart condition from the coaching job. He continued to work as director of sports for Aalen, but was sacked on 5 May 2009.

In April 2013, he started to work as director of sports for his former club SV Waldhof Mannheim.

Personal life After his retirement from professional sports, Kohler occasionally played for Alemannia Adendorf in the Kreisliga C (the 11th tier of German club football).

Career statistics Club 1 Including appearances in 1989 DFB-Supercup, 1990 DFB-Supercup, 1995 DFB-Supercup, 1996 DFB-Supercup and 1997 UEFA Super Cup .

International

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kohler goal.

Juventus Serie A: 1994–95 Coppa Italia: 1994–95 UEFA Cup: 1992–93

Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga: 1995–96, 2001–02 DFB-Supercup: 1995, 1996 UEFA Champions League: 1996–97 Intercontinental Cup: 1997 UEFA Cup runner-up: 2001–02

Germany FIFA World Cup: 1990 UEFA European Championship: 1996, runner-up 1992 U.S. Cup: 1993

Individual kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1990–91, 1998–99, 2000–01 UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1992 Footballer of the Year in Germany: 1997