Max Merkel
Encyclopedia
Maximilian Merkel (born Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, 7 December 1918 – died Putzbrunn
Putzbrunn
Putzbrunn is a town in the district of Munich, Bavaria in Germany.-References:...

 (on the outskirts of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

), Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, 28 November 2006) was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player and coach. The former Rapid
SK Rapid Wien
The Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...

 player featured twice in a national team. "The Great Zampano" - as he was also called after the title of an Italian movie about a magician - whose motto was "with cake and whip" was one of the top coaches in the early years of the Bundesliga. He remains most closely associated to the halcyon days of TSV 1860 Munich in the early 1960s. His brand of Viennese humour, often exceeding the line to sarcasm, frequently spiced up the football scene.

Playing Years

In 1933 a classified advertisement by the Viennese football club Rapid looking for young players allured the 15 year old Max Merkel. They took him, but to his disappointment he was made defender and not, as he hoped, forward. He was to remain in this position for the rest of his career. Later he formed a formidable duo in the defence with Ernst Happel, who as coach went on to achieve legendary status in the 1970s and 80s.

He also played for Wiener Sportclub
Wiener Sportclub
The Wiener Sport-Club, commonly referred to simply as WSC, was established in 1883 playing in club colours of black and white. It is one of the Austrian capital Vienna's oldest athletics clubs, their traditional home is in the Dornbach quarter of the city....

 between 1937–42 and in the 1945–46 season, for the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

n-SV Markersdorf an der Pielach between 1942 and 45) before returning to Rapid from 1946 to 1954.

After the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

 he played once for the German national football team in 1939. In 1952 he also played once for Austria
Austria national football team
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....

.

Merkel's greatest regret about his time as player is that most of it "was stolen by the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

".

Coaching Years

After he acquired under the German World Cup winning national team coach Sepp Herberger
Sepp Herberger
Josef "Sepp" Herberger was a German football player and manager...

 his coaching diploma, Max Merkel had his first appointment between 1954–55 with HBS Craeyenhout
HBS Craeyenhout (football club)
HBS Craeyenhout is a Dutch association football team based in The Hague, a part of the wider HBS Craeyenhout sports team.One of the original clubs of Dutch football, and three times champions , the club refused to enter into professionalism in the 1950s and has played at the amateur level since then...

 in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, which he followed up with a year as Bondscoach, i.e., coach of the Dutch national team. Highlight in this position was probably the prestigious 2-1 win in Düsseldorf over reigning World Champions Germany.

In 1956 Merkel returned to his home country and took on the reins at Rapid
SK Rapid Wien
The Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...

 for two years. There he achieved the championship in his first season and thus, his first title.

This gave him an entry with the then highly rated German side Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund, commonly BVB, are a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. Dortmund are one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund play in the Bundesliga, the top league of German football...

. He coached there from 1958 to 1961. The peak of this tenure was reaching the 1961 final for the German championship, which the club lost in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

 to 1. FC Nuremberg with 0-3.

TSV 1860 Munich – the Glory Years

After this he moved to Munich coaching TSV 1860. His first great achievement with the club, which was then the number two in town behind Bayern, was to take it to the crucial championship of the southern division of the German first division in 1963. This success meant, that 1860 and not their local rivals were to represent Munich in the first edition of the newly formed Bundesliga.

From there he took the club from strength to strength. In 1964 the Sixtiers won the German cup defeating in the final Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt is a German sports club, based in Frankfurt, Hesse that is best known for its association football club.- Club origins :...

 with 2-0. In the ensuing Cup Winners Cup campaign they eliminate FC Porto and Legia Warszawa
Legia Warszawa
Legia Warszawa is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. It was founded in March 1916 in the area of Maniewicze in Volhynia as the football club of the Polish Legions...

. AC Torino forces them into a play-off match after results of 0-2 and 3-1 were indecisive. 1860 wins the play-off match in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 2-0 and is the first German club to contest the final of this competition. The final was held in front of 100 000 in the Wembley Stadium against the Londoners from West Ham United captained by Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...

 (†) and coached by Ron Greenwood (†). Two goals from Alan Sealey
Alan Sealey
Alan William Sealey was an English football player. Sealey, an outside right, initially played for Leyton Orient in 1960, before moving to West Ham United, in a player exchange for Dave Dunmore, where he played from 1961 to 1967.Sealey celebrated getting married in May 1965 just one week before he...

 (†) in the 70th and 72nd minutes ensured that the 60ers travelled home with respect only, but no trophy.

The next season was more successful and crowned with the clubs to date only championship title. Peter Grosser
Peter Grosser
Peter Grosser is a retired German football player and coach. As a player, he spent six seasons in the Bundesliga with TSV 1860 München. He also represented Germany on two occasions, in a 1966 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Sweden and in a friendly against Northern Ireland...

 and Hans Rebele
Hans Rebele
Hans Rebele is a retired German football player. He spent 6 seasons in the Bundesliga with TSV 1860 München. He also represented Germany in two friendlies.-Honours:* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalist: 1965.* Bundesliga champion: 1966....

 powered the offensive style for which this side was famous. Local hero Rudolf Brunnenmeier
Rudolf Brunnenmeier
Rudolf "Rudi" Brunnenmeier was a German football player. The former top scorer of the Bundesliga and five times player for Germany is closely associated with the great era of TSV 1860 Munich in the 1960s.-Career:The forward played from 1960 until 1968 for 1860 Munich...

 († 2003) was the top scorer of the league. Highly memorable was also Yugoslav goalkeeper Petar Radenkovic
Petar Radenkovic
Petar Radenković is a Serbian football goalkeeper who played for SFR Yugoslavia.His younger brother Milan Radenković was a famous musician in the United States.-References:**...

, the first foreign star in the Bundesliga. Players like Luttrop and Reich performed defensive roles in this highly entertaining cast where also Alfred "Fredi" Heiss
Alfred Heiß
Alfred 'Fredy' Heiß is a retired German football player. He spent seven seasons in the Bundesliga with TSV 1860 München...

, Friedhelm Konietzka, Wilfried Kohlars
Wilfried Kohlars
Wilfried Kohlars is a retired German football player. He spent 7 seasons in the Bundesliga with TSV 1860 München.-Honours:* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalist: 1965.* Bundesliga champion: 1966.* Bundesliga runner-up: 1967....

 and Hans Küppers
Hans Küppers
Hans Küppers is a retired German football player. He spent 6 seasons in the Bundesliga with TSV 1860 München and 1. FC Nuremberg...

 managed to capture the attention of a wider audience.

In the European Champions Cup
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 their second round encounter with the defenders Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...

 was too high a hurdle. A 1-0 in the first leg was not enough as Real could decide their home match with 3-1 in their favour. In the league 1860 was less consistent than in the previous season, but remained close to eventual champions Eintracht Braunschweig
Eintracht Braunschweig
Eintracht Braunschweig is a German association football club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding members of the Bundesliga in 1963 and won the national title in 1967.-History:...

 until the last day. With only two points behind 1860 finishes as runner-up in a season that marked the end of the yellow brick road for the club.

In the course of the 1966–67 season the team denigrated into the second half of the table whilst the club decayed financially. By December 1966 Max Merkel was out of a job. But not for long.

1. FC Nuremberg

In January 1967, after the first half series, he takes over at 1. FC Nuremberg, the then still German record champions with eight titles and colloquially just referred to as "the Club". The Club was then only one point away from a relegation rank. He finishes the season a safe tenth. In the next season the team with the then, with a monthly salary of €9,000, by far best paid coach in Germany - "the dosh must be right" was one of his mottoes - leads the generally mediocre team to championship honours. This was the Club's ninth and hitherto last championship, only Bayern have more. The team had only five players that ever made it into a national side, the winger Georg Volkert
Georg Volkert
Georg 'Schorsch' Volkert is a retired German football player. He played in 410 games in Bundesliga and scored 125 goals.-Honours:* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1977.* Bundesliga winner: 1968....

 and the Austrian midfielder August "Gustl" Starek
August Starek
August Starek is a former international Austrian footballer and football manager. He ist also known as Gustl Starek and der Schwarze Gustl .-External links:* - Weltfussball * - National Football Teams...

 being the most memorable. Besides them featured the later Ajax libero Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg is a former German football player, who played as a sweeper. He is best known for the time in the beginning of the 1970s, during which he played for Ajax Amsterdam and won the European Cup three times and the Dutch championship and the KNVB Cup twice. In 1976, he won the German...

 and striker Franz Brungs
Franz Brungs
Franz Brungs is a retired German football coach and player. As a player, he spent eight seasons in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Nuremberg and Hertha BSC.-Honours:* Bundesliga champion: 1967–68...

, who was the second-best goalscorer of the Bundesliga with 25 goals in Nuremberg's championship season.

The success was mostly attributed to Merkel's harsh coaching methods, which ruthlessly focused on physical fitness. The next season the club saw itself confronted with relegation angst
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...

. Some blamed the coaching methods, respectively Merkel's style wearing off. Others saw the pre-season departure of important players like Starek, Brungs and Blankenburg as the main issue. Max Merkel did not get to stay until the bitter end. By March 1969 he was sacked, and "the Club" got to play in the second division for the next two years and never returned to former glory. Incidentally, 1860 Munich should meet a similar fate just a year later.

Merkel complained later: "They built facilities worth € 8m and wanted to transform the championship title into money. The players fled."

In this period Merkel also published his book "With Cake and Whip" (Mit Zuckerbrot und Peitsche) - the title was probably a suitable description of his style.

Years in Spain

Max Merkel got attracted to Spain and coached Sevilla FC
Sevilla FC
Sevilla Fútbol Club S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, Spain that plays in the Spanish La Liga championship.They are one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football having won a 1 La Liga title, 5 Spanish "Copa del Rey" Cups, 1 Spanish Super Cup and 2 UEFA...

 in La Liga
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...

 for the next two years.

He stayed in Spain and progressed to Atlético Madrid where in his first season he won the cup and followed it up with the championship. Merkel had to leave the club despite his success. His light-hearted remark that Spain were great if it were not for the Spaniards, was taken less as being humorous, but rather as a full frontal assault on Iberian pride. The Argentinian Juan Carlos Lorenzo followed him and took the club into next year's European Champions Cup
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 final, where Atlético lost to Bayern Munich.

Autumn of the Career

In 1974 he returned briefly to 1860, then entrenched in the second division. Merkel too, had problems steering the club to a return to the top flight, and thus became just another coach in a sequence of many that 1860 employed in this era.

In the 1975–76 season he had his last major appointment. At Schalke 04 he followed the trusty Ivica Horvat who led the club twice to 7th place in the past years, in the coaching chair. After the first half of the season the team was 6th and later even climbed temporarily to 4th. After a couple of defeats the club sacked Merkel whose style was certainly not quite suitable for the club with the coal miners' pride. Remarks such as "there are too many blondes in the team" and "the best thing about Schalke is the autobahn to Munich", did not endear him in this environment.

In 1978 he was signed by Bayern Munich to succeed the Hungarian Gyula Lóránt
Gyula Lóránt
Gyula Lóránt , also referred to as Gyula Lipovics or Lóránt Gyula, was a Hungarian football player and manager...

. This triggered a revolt of the players at the club. The team considered him a too tough taskmaster and rejected Merkel. This resulted in a unanimous vote by the players who wanted Lóránt's assistant Pál Csernai
Pál Csernai
Pál Csernai was a Hungarian football player and coach. As a player he was denied great successes, but as a coach he revived the fortunes of Bayern Munich in the early 1980s after the end of their golden era.-The Player:...

 to take over. The whole affair caused tremendous publicity. In the end Bayern president Wilhelm Neudecker resigned after 17 years at the helm of the club and Csernai became anointed as the new head coach.

German second division sides FC Augsburg
FC Augsburg
FC Augsburg is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. The team was founded as Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg in 1907 and played as BC Augsburg from 1921 to 1969....

, Karlsruher SC
Karlsruher SC
Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. KSC rose out of the consolidation of a number of predecessor clubs. They currently play in the 2...

 and in 1983 FC Zürich in Switzerland were the last clubs he coached.

Merkel was one of the most colourful football identities of his era. His major complaint was that "contrary to Udo Lattek
Udo Lattek
Udo Lattek is a former German football player and coach, and is now a television sportscaster....

 I never had ready to go teams. Mostly I was approached by the wrong clubs." He did not take it too lightly that, despite signed contracts with Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

, he did not eventually get to coach them or a club of this calibre.

In his last years he lived reclusively in Putzbrunn near Munich, but each year at the start of the Bundesliga season some articles appeared under his name in the mass tabloid "Bild
Bild-Zeitung
The Bild is a German tabloid published by Axel Springer AG. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday, while on Sundays, Bild am Sonntag is published instead, which has a different style and its own editors...

" and still stirred up the odd controversy.

Career Overview

Period Team Successes
1954–1955   HBS Craeyenhout
HBS Craeyenhout (football club)
HBS Craeyenhout is a Dutch association football team based in The Hague, a part of the wider HBS Craeyenhout sports team.One of the original clubs of Dutch football, and three times champions , the club refused to enter into professionalism in the 1950s and has played at the amateur level since then...

1955–1956   Netherlands
Netherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...

1956–1958   SK Rapid Wien
SK Rapid Wien
The Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...

1957 - Championship
1958–1961   Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund, commonly BVB, are a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. Dortmund are one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund play in the Bundesliga, the top league of German football...

1961–1967   TSV 1860 München
TSV 1860 München
Turn- und Sportverein München von 1860, commonly known as TSV 1860 München or 1860 Munich, is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. The club's football team plays in the Second Bundesliga, after relegation from the Bundesliga following the 2003–04 season...

1964 - Cup
1966 - Championship
1967–1969   1. FC Nuremberg 1968 - Championship
1969–1971   Sevilla FC
Sevilla FC
Sevilla Fútbol Club S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, Spain that plays in the Spanish La Liga championship.They are one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football having won a 1 La Liga title, 5 Spanish "Copa del Rey" Cups, 1 Spanish Super Cup and 2 UEFA...

1971–1973   Atlético Madrid 1972 - Cup
1973 - Championship
1974–1975   TSV 1860 München
1975–1976   FC Schalke 04
FC Schalke 04
Fußball-Club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, commonly known as simply FC Schalke 04 or Schalke , is a German, association-football club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Schalke has long been one of the most popular football teams in Germany, even though major...

1976–1977   FC Augsburg
FC Augsburg
FC Augsburg is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. The team was founded as Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg in 1907 and played as BC Augsburg from 1921 to 1969....

1981–1982   Karlsruher SC
Karlsruher SC
Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. KSC rose out of the consolidation of a number of predecessor clubs. They currently play in the 2...

1983   FC Zürich
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