Ernst Happel

Ernst Franz Hermann Happel (29 November 1925 – 14 November 1992) was an Austrian football player and manager.

Happel is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, winning both league and domestic cup titles in the Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany, and Austria.

All youth players of Rapid Vienna automatically became member of the Hitler Jugend in 1938.

Ernst reported he refused to sing along to their songs until he was kicked out of their gatherings.

Forming a solid defensive partnership with Max Merkel, he played 14 years for Rapid, from 1943 until 1954 and 1956 until 1959, winning the Austrian Championship title six times.

He was conscripted and dispatched to the Eastern Front in 1943.

Although he never saw action, he was arrested by the Americans in 1945.

He escaped by jumping out of the train wagon in Munich and took several months to make his way back to Vienna.

He smuggled himself into the Soviet occupation zone with the excuse that he had seen from afar his house was still standing and that he'd started playing at Rapid Vienna again.

Ernst Happel never married.

He was described by one of his ex-players Birger Jensen as a bit of a loner, always accompanied by his cigarettes and cognac.

He nevertheless would meet up with Austrian friends, enjoying card games, pool and darts.

Happel made his debut for Austria in September 1947 against Hungary.

He played for Austria at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

He was a participant at the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland, where he helped them reach third place, and also at the 1958 World Cup.

This is the best result ever for a non-domestic manager in a World Cup alongside Englishman George Raynor's Swedish runner-up campaign in 1958.

He was the first of the six managers to have won the European Cup with two clubs (Carlo Ancelotti, Ottmar Hitzfeld, José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jupp Heynckes being the other five).

He is also one of six managers–– along with Ancelotti, Mourinho, Giovanni Trapattoni, Tomislav Ivić, and Eric Gerets–– to have won top-flight domestic league championships in at least four countries.

Happel started his professional playing career at Rapid Wien, where he made his first team debut at age 17.

His last international was a September 1958 match against Yugoslavia.

He earned 51 caps and scored 5 goals.

After retiring as a player, Happel went on to become one of the greatest coaches of all time.

He won the league title in four countries.

His first club was ADO Den Haag in 1962, with whom he won the Dutch Cup in 1968.

Happel won the European Cup twice, in 1970 with Feyenoord and 1983 with Hamburger SV, managed Club Brugge to a European Cup runner-up finish in 1978, and won a runners-up medal with the Netherlands at the 1978 FIFA World Cup.

After Den Haag he coached Feyenoord, with whom he won the European Cup (defeated Glasgow Celtic in the 1970 final) and the Intercontinental Cup in 1970, and the Dutch championship in 1971.

He also took two clubs to gold in the European Champions' Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) and the Netherlands to second place in the 1978 World Cup.

At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Happel was coach of The Netherlands national team and reached the final against the Argentina national team.

Always a man of few words, Happel's pre-match pep talk is said to have consisted of just one sentence: "Gentlemen, two points."

The Dutch, however, lost the final 3–1 in extra time.

During his career as coach, Happel worked for several clubs, including Sevilla, Club Brugge (winning the Belgian Championship title several times) and Hamburger SV (1981–1987, German champions in 1982 and 1983, German Cup winner 1987).

In 1983, he won the European Cup again, 13 years after the triumph with Feyenoord, this time with Hamburger SV, defeating Juventus in the final.

He is one of six coaches in the history of the European Cup (now called Champions League) to win the title with two clubs, the others being Ottmar Hitzfeld, who won with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich; José Mourinho, who won with Porto and Inter Milan; Jupp Heynckes, who won with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich; Carlo Ancelotti, who won with Milan and Real Madrid; and Pep Guardiola, who won with FC Barcelona and Manchester City.

In 1987, Happel returned to Austria as coach of Swarovski Tirol.

With the club, he won the Austrian Championship title twice (1989 and 1990) before becoming coach of the Austria national team in 1992.

A heavy smoker for most of his adult life, Happel died of lung cancer in 1992 at age 66.

In the wake of his death, the biggest football stadium in Austria, the Praterstadion in Vienna, was renamed the Ernst-Happel-Stadion.

Four days after his death, Austria played against Germany and reached a 0–0 draw; Happel's cap lay on the bench during the entire match.

He was chosen in Rapid's Team of the Century in 1999.

The two years in between Happel played for Racing Club de Paris in France.