Dieter Eilts

Dieter Eilts

Personal information
Date of birth	(1964-12-13) 13 December 1964
Place of birth	Upgant-Schott, West Germany
Height
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Werder Bremen (Director of academy)
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 20
2008–2009	F.C. Hansa Rostock
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964 in Upgant-Schott) was an acclaimed German footballer who currently works for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy. His nickname was the Alemão of East Frisia, for his similarity with to Brazilian midfielder Alemão. The word Alemão means "German" in Portuguese (but then again, the Brazilian player earned his nickname precisely because of his blond "German" appearance).

Player career

Eilts, a native of East Frisia, 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. 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. 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 the 6 August 2004, he was the coach of the German U21 squad. Latterly, he was coaching German second league team Hansa Rostock, but was released from his contract on 6 March 2009 after poor league results.

In 2009, Ellits was appointed as offspring manager for VfL Oldenburg. In January 2011, he got a new role as youth-coordinator in the club.

Ellis got on 27 January 2012 the job as Director of football academy at SV Werder Bremen.

Honours

• Bundesliga: 1987–88, 1992–93
• DFB-Pokal: 1990–91, 1993–94 and 1998–99
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1991–92
• UEFA European Championship: 1996

References

• Werder Bremen profile