Michael Skibbe

Michael Heinz Skibbe (born 4 August 1965) is a German former football player and current manager of Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

In his youth, Skibbe played for SG Wattenscheid 09, then moved to the professional team of FC Schalke 04.

From 1985 to 1986, he appeared in 14 Bundesliga games, but tore his cruciate ligament three times, which ended his playing career.

At the age of 22, he started his career as coach with Schalke 04 youth team.

In 1989, Skibbe became a youth coach for Borussia Dortmund.

Skibbe became head coach of the reserve side on 1 July 1997, where he won the Oberliga Westfalen, and head coach of the senior team on 1 July 1998.

Skibbe becoming the youngest head coach in the Bundesliga of all time at the age of 32.

Skibbe was sacked on 6 February 2000.

Skibbe finished with a record of 28 wins, 20 draws, and 18 losses.

Skibbe moved to the position of coordinator of the youth system of the club.

He gave up this post after being offered the position as director of the Germany national team.

In 2000, he became its head coach.

Rudi Völler, however, made most of the decisions, but did not have a coaching licence and thus couldn't be the official head coach.

After Germany was eliminated in the first round of UEFA Euro 2004, Völler and Skibbe resigned from their positions.

Skibbe was director of the youth system of the German Football Association from 24 August 2004 to 8 October 2005.

Skibbe became head coach of Bayer Leverkusen on 8 October 2005.

Skibbe was sacked from Bayer Leverkusen on 18 May 2008 after missing out on Europe.

Skibbe finished with a record of 52 wins, 25 draws, and 45 losses.

On 11 June 2008 Skibbe agreed terms with the Turkish football club Galatasaray.

He won the Turkish Super Cup after a 2–1 victory against Kayserispor.

Galatasaray failed to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League after they lost 3–2 on aggregate to Steaua Bucuresti.

Skibbe was sacked from Galatasaray on 23 February 2009, after a heavy 5–2 loss to Kocaelispor.

Skibbe left Galatasaray fifth in the table, outside of a UEFA Champions League spot.

On 4 June 2009, Eintracht Frankfurt announced that Skibbe would succeed Friedhelm Funkel as head coach of the club.

On 22 March 2011, after a decline in the Bundesliga, Skibbe was sacked by the club.

Skibbe finished with a record of 25 wins, 15 draws, and 27 losses.

On 17 July 2011, Eskişehirspor announced that Skibbe would succeed Bülent Uygun as head coach of the club.

On 27 December 2011, Skibbe's contract was dissolved to make way for his move to Hertha BSC.

Skibbe finished with a record of nine wins, three draws, and five losses.

Skibbe was officially released from Eskişehirspor to make way for his Hertha BSC move on 27 December 2011.

He had been coach of the club before in 2011 for six months.

After five losses in five games with the team, Skibbe was sacked from Hertha BSC on 12 February 2012.

On 17 May 2012, he was formally introduced as the new manager of Karabükspor for 1+1 years.

Skibbe left the club on 5 November 2012.

Skibbe finished with a record of four wins, three draws, and five losses.

On 15 June 2013, Skibbe was appointed as the new manager of Grasshopper Club Zürich, succeeding Uli Forte.

In January 2015, his contract was terminated by mutual consent.

The club's management met thereby Skibbe's desire of realignment.

On 12 January 2015, it was reported that Skibbe had taken over Turkish Süper Lig side Eskişehirspor as the new manager.

On 29 October 2015, the Hellenic Football Federation hired him as the new head coach of the national team.