Eric Gerets
Gerets in Moscow in 2008
Eric Maria Gerets ( born May 18, 1954 in Rekem ) is a former Belgian footballer and current coach.
Career as a player
Gerets began his career at AA Rekem. In 1971 he moved to Standard Liege. With Standard Liege 1981, he was cup winner and 1982 and 1983 champion. In 1982 he was elected to the Belgian Footballer of the Year. 1983 moved to Italy Gerets to AC Milan. Here, however, he found not handle himself and changed in 1984 to MVV Maastricht. For the 1985/86 season he moved to PSV Eindhoven, where he stood up to end of his career in 1992 under contract. The PSV Eindhoven he won on May 25, 1988 in Stuttgart against Benfica on penalties (0-0 aet / 6:5 after Elfm ) the European Champions Cup, six times champion and three times Cup winner was.
The right-back made his debut on 27 September 1975 with the international match in Brussels against the DFV selection in the national team. Gerets belonged alongside players such as Jean -Marie Pfaff, Walter Meeuws and Jan Ceulemans the mainstays of the team of coach Guy Thys, which took place at the European Championships in Italy in 1980 in the elite of world football. In the European Championship qualifying Group 2 it had the "Red Devils " had to do on 20 September 1978 to 19 December 1979 with the competitors from Austria, Portugal, Scotland and Norway. With 12:5 12:4 points and gates, Belgium prevailed, Gerets graduated from there - as well as Julien Cools, Francois van der Elst, Walter Meeuws and Rene Vandereycken all eight qualifying matches. In the European Championship finals in Italy in 1980 from June 11 to 22 Gerets was also in the three group matches against England (1:1 ), Spain ( 2-1 and Italy ( 0-0) on the field. In the final game of Rome on June 22 lost the team with 1:2 against Germany. trainer Thys was in Italy on a starting eleven with Jean -Marie Pfaff, Michel Renquin Gerets, Meeuws, Luc Millescamps, Julien Cools, Wilfried van Moer, Raymond Mommens, Rene Vandereycken Francois van der Elst and Jan Ceulemans put, all of which came to four missions during the final round. during the 1982 World Cup in Spain Belgium struck in the opening game world champions Argentina 1-0, but later divorced in the second final round against Poland from. Gerets took at the Football world Cup 1986 in Mexico, where he celebrated the greatest success of Belgian football when his team finished fourth. During the Football World Cup 1990, he reached with the team the next round, but retired to England after extra time. With the game on 27 March 1991 in Brussels against Wales he ended his 16- year career in the national team.
Career as a coach
Immediately following his playing career took over as head coach Eric Gerets 1992 the Belgian first division club RFC Liege. His coaching career has taken him in subsequent years to the clubs Lierse SK and FC Bruges, with whom he was in each Belgian champion. From 1999 to 2002 Gerets worked at PSV Eindhoven, with whom he Dutch masters and Dutch Supercup winner in 2001 was twice. In May 2002, he was dismissed and replaced in Eindhoven on 5 September 2002 Andreas Brehme as coach of German Bundesliga 1 FC Kaiserslautern, where he saved the team from relegation and led to the DFB Cup final in 2003, where the team was the Bayern Munich defeated. After a mixed first half of the season 2003/ 04 Gerets was released on 2 February 2004 in Kaiserslautern and also wrote on April 4, 2004 a contract with VfL Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg he led at the beginning of the season 2004/ 05 to the top spot in the Bundesliga, but could not hold that level until the end of the season the club. After differences with the board over the future of the club they separated on 28 May 2005, Eric Gerets was replaced by Holger Fach. Gerets then signed a contract with the Turkish club Galatasaray tradition in which he was from May 2005 to May 2007 in the office. With this club he won in the 2005/06 season the championship. Since September 2007, he was the successor of Albert Emon coach of the French Erstdivisionärs Marseille. On 28 April 2009 Gerets announced his resignation as manager of Olympique Marseille end of the season. On 1 July 2009 Erik Gerets took over the club Al Hilal Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, he coached until autumn 2010. In July 2010 he signed a contract as coach of the Moroccan national team, which he in November 2010 for the first time looked after .. In September 2012, ended his contract with the Moroccan national team after the disastrous results. In October 2012 Gerets took over the top club from the Qatar Stars League, SC Lekhwiya.