Rudi Vรถller
Germany
13 April 1960
forward
is a German professional football manager and former player, who is currently the director of the Germany national team. In Germany, he is nicknamed \"Tante Kรคthe\" (\"Aunt Kathy\"), a name bestowed upon him by Thomas Berthold, and in Italy, he is nicknamed \"Il tedesco volante\" (\"The flying German\") by supporters of Roma.
A forward, Vรถller began his professional career at Kickers Offenbach, before joining 1860 Munich, and he was top scorer of the 2. Bundesliga in the 1981โ82 season. He went on to play for Werder Bremen, where he was noted for his consistent goalscoring, becoming the top scorer of the Bundesliga in the 1982โ83 season. Vรถller moved abroad, firstly transferring to Serie A club Roma and then to Ligue 1 club Olympique Marseille. At Roma, he won the Coppa Italia and was runner-up of the UEFA Cup during the 1990โ91 season; he was also top scorer of both these tournaments. At Marseille, he won the French title and the Champions League in the 1992โ93 season, but following a match fixing scandal, the club were stripped of their league title and were relegated in 1994. The same year, Vรถller returned to his native country, ending his career at Bayer Leverkusen.
Vรถller made his debut for the Germany national team, then known as West Germany, in 1982. He represented his country at three FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships each, during a successful period for Die Nationalmannschaft. Vรถller played in two consecutive World Cup finals, both of which were against Argentina, and he won the trophy in 1990. At the time of his retirement in 1994, he was Germany's second highest goalscorer behind Gerd Mรผller; he is now joint-fourth with Jรผrgen Klinsmann, having been surpassed by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.
After retiring as a player with Bayer Leverkusen, he became the sporting director of the club until 2000, where he was the interim manager for twelve matches, before being succeeded by Berti Vogts. He was then appointed caretaker manager of the Germany national team, despite his lack of coaching experience. In the wake of the drug scandal that involved the preferred choice of the DFB, Christoph Daum, Vรถller was ultimately kept on, and was able to lead Germany to the 2002 FIFA World Cup final, where they lost to Brazil. Along with Mรกrio Zagallo, Franz Beckenbauer and Didier Deschamps, Vรถller has the distinction of reaching a World Cup final as both a player (1986 and 1990) and as a manager (2002). Following a group-stage exit at UEFA Euro 2004, Vรถller resigned as manager, after which he had a short-lived spell as manager of his former club Roma. He later returned to Leverkusen, where he was briefly interim manager again, and became the club's sporting director for the second time, a position he held until 2022. In February 2023, he was appointed director of the Germany national team.
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