Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (born September 25, 1955) was a German
football player and now a football functionary.
He had his greatest successes in his time with Bayern Munich,
where he won the Intercontinental Cup, the European Cup of
Champions as well as a number of national titles. With Germany
he was runner-up in the 1982 World Cup and the 1986 World Cup,
and won the 1980 European Championship. He was also honoured
twice as European Footballer of the Year.
Club
Rummenigge joined Bayern Munich in 1974, coming from the
Westphalian amateur side Borussia Lippstadt, for a transfer fee
of ca. € 10,000. He immediately showed great strength as a
dribbler. His striking qualities were initially insignificant,
but should find great improvement in later years, particularly
after the arrival oc coach Pal Csernai in 1979. In 1979/80 he
scored 26 goals and became for the first time the Bundesliga's
top striker, a feat he could repeat in 1981 and 1984 with 29 and
26 goals, respectively. His record of 1981 is hitherto unmatched.
With Bayern he won in 1975 and 1976 the European Cup of
Champions. In 1975 he did not take part in the final of the
competition, whilst in the year thereafter a glass of brandy
sufficiently prepared the nervous Rummenigge to contribute to
the defeat of AS Saint-Etienne. In the same year he became also
part of the team that prevailed in the Intercontinental Cup
finals against Cruzeiro EC from Belo Horizonte.
In the era of coach Csernai he found in midfielder Paul Breitner
a congenial duo. The club, then often dubbed as "FC Breitnigge",
won in this period the German championships of 1980 and 1981,
and the German Cup in 1982 und 1984. A renewed triumph in the
European Champions Cup was denied, when the club lost the 1982
final narrowly against Aston Villa. In the season before
Rummenigge was top-scorer in this competition with 6 goals.
His substantial contribution to the successes of the club and
the German national football team found also expression in
personal honours. 1980 he became German Footballer of the Year
and in the same year as well as in the season thereafter
European Footballer of the Year. In this era he was also a
serious rival for Diego Maradona for the unofficial honour of
being the best player of the world.
In 1984, aged 29, he transfered for the then world record fee of
€ 5.7m to Inter Milan. His time there was not particularly
significant, even less so as it was frequently marred by injury
problems. At the end of his contract in 1987 Rummenigge moved on
to Swiss first division club Servette FC in Geneva, where he saw
his career out. In his last season, 1989/89 he had his last
success, becoming top scorer of Switzerland with 24 goals.
National Team
With the German national football team he took part in the 1978
World Cup, 1982 World Cup and 1986 World Cup. In 1978 Germany
exited in the first knock-out stage of the tournament. In 1982
and 1986 the team was runner-up behind Italy and Argentina, then
with the legendary Maradona, respectively.
Rummenigge took also part in two European Championship
tournaments. In the 1980 competition in Italy Germany defeated
Belgium in the final with 2-1 and won the trophy. The 1984
tournament is engraved as one of the most successless
undertakings of the German national team. Germany was already
ousted in the group stage.
Altogether Rummenigge amassed between 1976 and 1986 85 caps and
scored 45 goals in the process. |
