Dieter Eilts

Dieter Eilts

Personal information
Date of birth	(1964-12-13) 13 December 1964 (age 59)
Place of birth	Upgant-Schott, West Germany
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	SV Hage
	Werder Bremen
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1984–1988	Werder Bremen II	132	(36)
1985–2002	Werder Bremen	390	(7)
Total		522	(43)
International career
1993–1997	Germany	31	(0)
Managerial career
2002–2003	Werder Bremen U19
2003–2004	Germany U19
2004–2008	Germany U21
2006–2007	Germany U20
2008–2009	Hansa Rostock
Medal record Men's football Representing   Germany UEFA European Championship Winner 1996 England
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. ^[1] After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy.

Playing career

Born in Upgant-Schott, East Frisia, Eilts had the reputation of being the quintessential midfield blue-collar worker. He played 390 matches in the Bundesliga for SV Werder Bremen, his only club during his whole professional career, and scored seven goals. ^[2] He was also lauded as one of the most responsible and sensible players of the league, never appearing in the yellow press and always leading by example. Eilts is regarded as one of the finest discoveries of legendary coach Otto Rehhagel.

Eilts also was a regular with the German squad, collecting 31 caps. ^[3] His finest games came in the 1996 European Championship, when he, Matthias Sammer and Thomas Helmer formed the defensive backbone of the team that won the trophy.

Eilts went to EURO '96 with the reputation of an outstanding club servant with Werder Bremen under future competition hero Otto Rehhagel, but at international level he was relatively inexperienced and had never previously participated in a major tournament. There were doubts in the German media over the wisdom of handing him the midfield anchorman role in England, but the wiry East Frisian surprised everybody with the class and composure of his play. It was his tactical appreciation and willingness to drop back into defence that enabled sweeper Matthias Sammer to make many dangerous sorties into enemy territory as his team let in just three goals, one of which came in the final after Eilts had been forced off due to injury. He closed his international career in 1997 with 31 caps, six of those coming in England, but captained Bremen until 2002, clocking up 390 Bundesliga appearances over a 17-year period. He won two German championships, three German Cups and, in 1992, the UEFA European Cup Winners' Cup. Since retirement he has coached the Germany Under-19 and U21 squads.

After retiring

After his player career, Eilts trained the German U19 squad, and from 6 August 2004, he was the coach of the German U21 squad. Latterly, he coached German second league team Hansa Rostock, but was released from his contract on 6 March 2009 after poor league results. ^[4]

In 2009, Eilts was appointed as youth manager for VfL Oldenburg. In January 2011, he got a new role as youth-coordinator in the club. ^[5]

Eilts got on 27 January 2012 the job as Director of football academy at SV Werder Bremen. ^[6]

Nickname

Eilts' nickname was Ostfriesen-Alemão (the Alemão of East Frisia ). It was coined by his then-manager Otto Rehhagel in a press conference ahead of a Werder Bremen match against S.S.C. Napoli in the UEFA Cup in reference to Napoli's Brazilian star midfielder Alemão. ^[7]

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			Cup		Continental		Other		Total		Ref.
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Werder Bremen II	1984–85	Oberliga Nord	34	5	0	0	–		–		34	5	[8] [9]
	1985–86		34	13	0	0	–		–		34	13	[8] [9]
	1986–87		30	11	2	1	–		–		32	12	[8] [9]
	1987–88		34	7	0	0	–		–		34	7	[8] [9]
	Total		132	36	2	1	0	0	0	0	134	37	–
Werder Bremen	1986–87	Bundesliga	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	[9]
	1987–88		2	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	4	1	[9]
	1988–89		13	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	16	1	[9]
	1989–90		31	1	6	1	9	2	0	0	46	4	[9]
	1990–91		32	0	6	1	0	0	0	0	38	1	[9]
	1991–92		37	1	5	0	7	1	2 [lower-alpha 1]	0	51	2	[9]
	1992–93		24	1	5	0	4	0	2 [lower-alpha 2]	0	35	1	[9]
	1993–94		26	1	5	0	7	0	1 [lower-alpha 3]	0	39	1	[9]
	1994–95		34	1	1	0	4	0	1 [lower-alpha 4]	0	40	1	[9]
	1995–96		32	0	3	0	5	0	0	0	40	0	[9]
	1996–97		30	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	32	0	[9]
	1997–98		33	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	34	1	[9]
	1998–99		32	0	6	0	4	1	0	0	42	1	[9]
	1999–00		29	1	4	0	9	0	2 [lower-alpha 5]	0	44	1	[9]
	2000–01		30	0	2	0	5	0	0	0	37	0	[9]
	2001–02		4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	6	0	[9]
	Total		390	7	52	4	55	4	8	0	505	15	–
Career total			522	43	44	12	55	4	8	0	629	59	–

1. Two appearances in DFL-Supercup
2. Two appearances in UEFA Super Cup
3. One appearance in DFL-Supercup
4. One appearance in DFL-Supercup
5. Two appearances in DFL-Ligapokal

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year ^[8]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Germany	1993	2	0
	1994	3	0
	1995	7	0
	1996	15	0
	1997	4	0
Total		31	0

Honours

Werder Bremen

• Bundesliga: 1987–88, 1992–93
• DFB-Pokal: 1990–91, 1993–94, 1998–99
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1991–92
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1998 ^[10]
• DFL-Supercup: 1993, 1994 ^{[11] [12]}

Germany

• UEFA European Championship: 1996

Individual

• UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1996

References

1. "Eilts, Dieter" (in German). kicker.de. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
2. Arnhold, Matthias (7 May 2015). "Dieter Eilts - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
3. Arnhold, Matthias (30 April 2015). "Dieter Eilts - International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
4. "Dieter Eilts muss von Bord" (in German). kicker.de. 6 March 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
5. "VfL Oldenburg: Dieter Eilts arbeitet als Jugendfußball-Koordinator" (in German). nwzonline.de. 18 January 2011.
6. "Kinderspaß ersetzt Profi-Stress" (in German). kreiszeitung.de. 17 January 2012.
7. Hudemann, Steffen (5 December 2019). "Wie Werder-Legende Eilts den Spitznamen "Ostfriesen-Alemão" bekam". Buten und Binnen (in German). Radio Bremen. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
8. "Dieter Eilts". National Football Teams. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
9. "Dieter Eilts » Club matches". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
10. "FK Vojvodina 1–1 Werder Bremen". leballonrond.fr. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
11. "Deutscher Supercup, 1993, Finale". dfb.de. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
12. "Deutscher Supercup, 1994, Finale". dfb.de. Retrieved 5 November 2020.

• Werder Bremen profile