Dietmar Constantini
Didi Constantini as head coach of Austrian national football team (2009)
Dietmar " Didi " Constantini (* May 30, 1955 in Innsbruck ) is a retired Austrian football player and current football coach. From March 4, 2009 until September 13, 2011, he coached the Austrian national team.
Career as a player
Constantini began his career with his hometown club FC Wacker Innsbruck. He was with this club champion twice. After a guest appearance in Linz, he completed his first and only foreign station in Greece. On his return to Austria, he played for a short time at various clubs in the first and second division, before he trailed off his career with the Wiener Sport - Club.
He completed a total of 198 games in the Austrian Bundesliga, scoring six goals.
Career as a coach
His first experience as a coach made Constantini as assistant coach in Austria and at Al -Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. He worked here together with Walter Skocik and Hans Krankl. In 1991 he moved to the OFB and managed there, the U-21 national team, he was also in personal union co- coach of the A-National team bosses Alfred Riedl. After his dismissal Constantini was for three months on an interim Austrian national team boss. When Ernst Happel was in 1992 appointed as the new team manager to Constantini moved back into second place. Cooperation Happel / Constantini was often depicted as a father / son relationship and Happel acted as mentor of Constantini. According to Happel's demise Constantini managed the national team again on an interim basis; after he had been, however, passed over for the renewed Team Principal Order, the way between him and the OFB parted.
He began a career as a Bundesliga coach. Clubs such as LASK Linz, FC Admira Wacker Mödling and FC Tirol Innsbruck were his employers over the next four years. After that he managed for eight months the first FSV Mainz 05 in the German second division. After this stint, he began to organize every summer football camps for children in Tyrol. But this financially lucrative business restricted him in his pro coaching career very, as he left his camp to August had organized for the months of June and thus no association could be available. He also wanted his family, who had settled in Tirol, save a move and only accept short-term exposures.
Constantini went away again as an assistant coach for OFB and stayed there for two and a half years. He was again a candidate for the Team Principals from 2002, but took himself out of the game, as he accepted the offer, FK Austria Wien to train for the early years of the 2002 season. He started with the club a brilliant comeback from the bottom of the table and led the team still in the UEFA Cup places. After holding its summer youth camps in September 2002 he took the post of sporting director at Wüstenrot Salzburg. The amazing thing about this engagement was that he came to Salzburg when the team stood at the bottom of the table. With the end of the season they finished third. As Constantini left the club, the team was soon back on the last place, although team and coach was almost unchanged. Rest of the year 2003, he spent again with his summer camps, from September 2003, he was hired by FC Kärnten. Officially brought in as sporting director, he spent a few games on the team bench and finally caught up with Peter Pacult as a coach in the club. A falling out with him also meant that the club Constantini left again. Then there was silence. He had offers from the Grazer AK and of various clubs from the first division and Switzerland, he rejected this, however from.
During his football free time he hosted as an expert, the football program hit on ATV and continued to channel his junior camps for children and young people.
Only in March 2006, he appeared again in the coach business when he took over the FC Superfund for three months as coach. As usual with him, he signed a contract and also did not negotiate a salary. After he had performed well this club in the UEFA Cup, he got the offer to stay on as director of sport and be able to work from Tyrol. This he refused, however, because it Constantini perceived as unfair, not to be "on the spot ". Since the new Superfund coach resigned unexpectedly in October 2006, Constantini took over the club again as a coach and remained until the end of season 2007, when the club sold his license to the SK Austria Kärnten.
On 19 March 2008 he was introduced as interim coach for Austria Wien. He managed the team until season's end.
National Coach of Austria
On March 4, 2009 Constantini has been appointed as the new Austrian team chief. He was followed by the Czech Karel Brückner, who had to leave the OFB team after just seven months of service and four competition games again. Constantini, who had already twice temporarily lead the national team, had been repeatedly brought in previous years with this position in conjunction. In the outstanding six qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup, the OFB team collected under Constantini's guide 10 points. As a third place of the quality group and 7 with seven points behind second-placed France but you missed the World Cup finals significantly.
The contract of the OFB with Constantini was extended in September 2009 to the 2012 European Championship.
Constantini had been considered a favorite of broad layers of the Austrian football public and the tabloids. During his period of service, however, he acted a more and more criticism from the media public. Controversies with internationally experienced team players like Martin Stranzl, Alexander Manninger and György Garics that ended all with the elimination or the resignation of the Player from the national team, gave rise to doubts about Constantini's leadership style. On incomprehension Constantini came in the fall of 2009, with its many reasons why he 05 good playing former team captain Andreas Ivanschitz not want to convene the OFB team the first in his club FSV Mainz. Especially with the assertion that the German Bundesliga had to " scrutinize " when Ivanschitz "Best after ten rounds of the scorers list " is there, Constantini attracted international admiration.
In the first year of his term Constantini were many very young Austrian players the chance to test themselves in international games. Some talents like Aleksandar Dragovic, Yasin Pehlivan, Julian Baumgartlinger or Jakob Jantscher could - as with their clubs - establish permanent, while others ( Christopher Drazan, Christopher Trimmel ) were allowed to play only short-term roles. This procedure also Constantini has been blamed by some fellow coaches and media representatives as " obsession with youth " and careless handling of inexperienced players.
The Austrian national team started with seven points from their first three matches in qualifying for the European Championship in 2012. Yet the faint idea of the team and the unconventional installation by the team boss in a 2-0 victory against Kazakhstan on 7 September 2010 triggered a wave of criticism of Constantini. After an entertaining 4-4 draw in Belgium Constantini items one month later, however, seemed until further secured. In spring 2011, however, the team led by Constantini could not meet the expectations. First, the A-Team on February 9, lost a test match against the Netherlands in Eindhoven 3-1. In the crucial qualifiers then came the great disillusionment: After a 0-2 against Belgium on 25 March in Vienna put it four days later in Turkey, also a 0-2 defeat. On June 3, the OFB team played against Germany in Vienna better, but still lost 1:2. In the return match on September 2 in Gelsenkirchen suffered a bitter defeat Constantini's team against a strong aufspielende DFB - Elf with 2:6. After the goalless draw four days later at home against Turkey and the associated premature failure in the European Championship qualifiers announced OFB president Leo Windtner not to extend the current contract until the end of 2011 with Constantini. In the last two qualifiers away against Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan as well as in a friendly in Ukraine, however, Constantini should still take on the coaching bench.
After the media criticism had already begun in the spring of 2011, also OFB president Leo Windtner Constantini criticized via the media that the honeymoon period is over. Then threw Constantini Windtner " bad style " before. On September 13, 2011 Constantini stepped with immediate effect as national coach.
Stations as a coach and sports director
- Co - coach of the Wiener Sport - Club
- 1987-1989: Assistant coach Walter Skocik at Al -Ittihad (Saudi Arabia)
- June 1989 to May 1991, assistant coach Hans Krankl at SK Rapid Wien
- June 1991 - Summer 1992: Supervisor of Olympia/U-21-Teams and assistant of OFB team leader Alfred Riedl
- October-November 1991 interim OFB team boss
- January - November 1992: Assistant coach of OFB team manager Ernst Happel
- November 1992: interim OFB team boss (0:0 in Germany )
- Spring 1993: Trainer at Linzer ASK
- 1993/94 and 1994/ 95: Trainer at Admira Wacker
- 1995/96 and 1996/97: Coach at FC Tirol Innsbruck
- September 1997 - April 1998: Trainer German second division club FSV Mainz 05 1
- April 1999 - November 2001: Assistant of OFB team manager Otto Baric
- December 22 2001-9. May 2002: Coach FK Austria Wien
- September 26 2002-24. June 2003: Sports Director at SV Austria Salzburg
- Autumn 2003: Sports director and coach at FC Kärnten, at the end of the fall season resigned
- March 7 2006-30. June 2006: Coach of FC Superfund
- October 25 2006-30. June 2007: Coach of FC Superfund until the sale of the Bundesliga license from FC Superfund in June 2007 to Carinthia
- March 19th 2008-30. June 2008: Coach FK Austria Wien
- March 4 2009-13. September 2011: OFB team boss