Euro 2016 – Austria coach spotlight – Marcel Koller

Euro 2016 – Austria coach spotlight – Marcel Koller

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Austrian national team coach Marcel Koller is being lauded for masterminding an unbeaten qualification campaign for the UEFA European Football Championships and for building an exciting, youthful squad. But it was not always this way for the Swiss born boss.

Koller has had both successful and unsuccessful spells in charge of numerous clubs in the Switzerland and German football leagues, but it was in 2009 when he was sacked by Bochum after a run of poor results and a fan revolt over his defensive management style, that he took two years off to study Italian football.

He has returned a changed man who picks the kids and has them attacking and taking on defenders, easily obtaining qualification to Euro 2016.


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As a player Koller plied his trade as a one club midfielder for Grasshopper Zurich in Switzerland, amassing 428 games in his 19-year playing career.  In that time he won seven league titles and five cups.

Koller also featured 56 times for the Swiss national team and participated during Euro 1996 in England.

The Swiss commenced a managerial career in 1997 with tiny club FC Wil 1900, earning promotion to the second division in his first season.

Halfway through his second campaign in January 1999, Koller was approached by St Gallen in the Swiss first division. Koller steered the club to its first championship in 95 years and managed to knockout Chelsea from the 2000 UEFA Cup. He was also voted Swiss Manager of the year in 2000.

In 2003, Koller won his second championship with Grasshopper but failed to qualify for the Champions’ League and resigned after less than 10 months in charge, after fans demanded an end to the dour, defensive minded style of play.

Jobless, Koller signed on with Bundesliga strugglers Cologne but failed to improve the club’s fortunes, winning just four matches and suffering relegation.

He next took charge of Bundesliga II side Bochum in May 2005, securing promotion and surviving the drop for three years. In that time he signed Christian Fuchs, now a Leicester City legend and captain of Austria’s national team under Koller.

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