Egon Coordes

Egon Coordes

Personal information
Date of birth	(1944-07-13) 13 July 1944
Place of birth	Wesermünde, Germany
Height	1.86m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1968–1969	TuS Bremerhaven 93
1969–1971	Werder Bremen	50	(1)
1971–1976	VfB Stuttgart	107	(8)
Managerial career
1977–1982	OSC Bremerhaven
1986–1987	VfB Stuttgart
1992	Hamburger SV
1993–1994	Al-Ahli
1994–1995	Austria Vienna
1995–1996	Hannover 96
1998–1999	FC Luzern
1999	Iran Under-23
2001–2002	Al Khaleej
2002–2003	FC Gatt
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Egon Coordes (born 13 July 1944, Wesermünde, Germany) is a German former professional football player and coach.

Football player career

Egon Coordes originally played football for the Leher TS youth side. Coordes later started his professional game career in the late 60s with Regionalliga North TuS Bremerhaven 93 and became well-known beyond the team. Coordes quickly moved to the top-ranked Bundesliga in 1971, playing through the rest of his career as "Defender" at SV Werder Bremen and VfB Stuttgart.

On 26 January 1974 Coordes managed to score the 10,000th Bundesliga goal against Eintracht Frankfurt. Coordes played a final season with Stuttgart before retiring as a player in 1976, aged 31.

Issues with the press

Egon Coordes often had little respect for journalists and news photographers through the years, which resulted in his often poor coverage in the press. As follows, Coordes never liked giving interviews, and at one point stated that his repeated negative press stories "reminds me of the Nazi era".

Football coaching career

When Egon Coordes first entered professional football coaching (with OSC Bremerhaven on 13 March 1982) he declared that his players should "fight and bite like the lions." Coordes was indeed widely considered a "passionate athlete" who preferred training cones and a stopwatch. He felt tactics were overrated.

However, Egon Coordes was roughly viewed for most of his football career as a coach who "leads a hard regiment, which does not necessarily result in an increased affection of its professionals." Coordes' style of leadership long carried the nickname "Schleifer" (in English "Grinder"). For one of many examples, in 1994 while Coordes was coaching for FK Austria Wien he once dropped legendary player Andreas Ogris from the squad for being five minutes late. Ogris was forcefully pardoned soon after.

In 1984 Egon Coordes coached in the Regionalliga North and later moved to the post of Assistant Coach at FC Bayern Munich. Coordes then stepped up to Head Coach at his former VfB Stuttgart club in 1986, but for only a single season as the team finished behind in 12th place.

In 1992 Egon Coordes returned to his former post at Bayern Munich before again becoming Head Coach of Hamburger SV, but was sacked by Hamburger management after a mere six months.

In 1993 Egon Coordes moved via the Shabab Al Ahli Club to the Al-Nasr, the first and oldest football league in the United Arab Emirates. A year onward he returned to Germany and joined with the 2. Bundesliga side, Hannover 96. Coordes struggled with Hannover management as the club plunged into the Regionalliga dilemma for the first time in their history. Coordes was promptly sacked.

In 1998 Egon Coordes returned to Bayern Munich as Assistant Coach. He later moved to Switzerland for a season with FC Lucerne before returning to the Middle East as the Iranian "under-23" and National Olympia Trainer. Coordes then transitioned again to Al-Khaleej of the UAE.

In 2011 Egon Coordes represented Bayern as a keen football scout rather than coach. He traveled to Croatia to negotiate a transfer of Dino Špehar to Munich. The discussion failed and years later Špehar said, "I do not regret that I refused Manchester and Bayern. I came to make history and become one of the best players in the championship."

In late 2012 Egon Coordes was asked to seriously advise and rescue FC Bayern Munich's basketball team, a move seen by some as odd. Coordes said during interview that, "the job was 'new territory' but the sport speaks one language. I had no concerns." In the similar period Coordes became credited with originally discovering Hansi Flick, a legend in the European football world.

By 2020 Egon Coordes was considered one of the best scouts in world football. He later retired from football except for casual appearances as consultant.

Personal life

As of 2024 Egon Coordes has a daughter living in Las Vegas Nevada, name of Claudia, a top real estate agent in her region with a record sale (in 2015) of baseball star Orel Hershiser's Vegas home.

In June 2023 Egon Coordes was publicly thanked for "wisdom, views, and fabulous cigars" when an artist returned from Dachau after Coordes insisted he make the trip.