Ralf Minge

Ralf Minge

File:Ralf Minge.JPG Minge with Dresden in 2009.
Personal information
Full name	Ralf Minge
Date of birth	(1960-10-08) 8 October 1960
Place of birth	Elsterwerda, East Germany
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Dynamo Dresden (Sporting Director)
Youth career
1969-1972	BSG Stahl Prösen
1972-1978	TSG Gröditz
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1978–1980	TSG Gröditz
1980–1991	Dynamo Dresden	222	(103)
Total		222	(103)
International career
1983–1989	East Germany	36	(8)
Managerial career
1993	Dynamo Dresden
1995	Dynamo Dresden
1995–1996	Erzgebirge Aue
2000–2005	Bayer Leverkusen II
2006–2007	Georgia U21
2010–2011	Germany U20
2012–2014	Bayer Leverkusen II
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ralf Minge (born 8 October 1960) is a German former footballer, later a coach, who currently works as sporting director of Dynamo Dresden.

He was an international for East Germany, and spent his entire professional career with Dynamo Dresden.

Playing career

A striker, Minge joined Dynamo Dresden in 1980, signing from TSG Gröditz, and spent the next eleven years with the club, winning two East German titles and four cups. He scored 103 league goals for the club, and ranks as the club's third top scorer, behind Hans-Jürgen Kreische and Torsten Gütschow. He retired in 1991, at the end of the last ever DDR-Oberliga season. At international level, Minge won 36 caps between 1983 and 1989, scoring eight times.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-1107-026, 1. FC Dynamo Dresden - FC Vorwärts Frankfurt-Oder.jpg

Ralf Minge (right) in a 1987 match against Vorwärts Frankfurt/Oder.

Coaching career

After retiring from the game, Minge had a brief spell on the board at Dynamo, before serving on the coaching staff for three years, during which he had two brief spells as manager, in 1993 and 1995, the last of which saw Dynamo's relegation from the Bundesliga, a relegation that was doubled due to financial misdealings.

Minge then left Dynamo, and in July 1995 took up the post as manager of Erzgebirge Aue, where he served for ten months. His next job came in 1998, assisting Toni Schumacher at Fortuna Köln. In December 1999, Schumacher was sacked, and Minge briefly stepped in as manager, but left by the end of the month, out of loyalty to his former colleague.

In 2000, he made the shot trip to Leverkusen, taking over the reserve team of Bayer 04, before the appointment of Klaus Toppmöller saw Minge promoted to the role of assistant manager. The club were almost hugely successful in 2001/02, reaching the finals of the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League, and finishing second in the Bundesliga. The success could not last, however, and many of the star players left, ultimately leading to Toppmöller losing his job. Minge eventually dropped back to managing Bayer Leverkusen II, before resigning at the end of the 2004/05 season.

He returned to Dresden to study psychology, but his break from football was to be short-lived, as in January 2006 he reunited with Klaus Toppmöller, this time as assistant coach of the Georgia national team, also managing the under-21s. In September 2006, he rejoined the Dynamo Dresden board, and in January 2008, took up the role as Sporting Director, ending his spell in Georgia. In March 2009, he resigned from the board. After one year without an job signed on 22 February 2010 a contract as head coach of the Germany national under-20 football team, he will begin with his new job on 1 March 2010.

Honours

• East German Cup (4): 1982, 1984, 1985, 1990
• East German Champion (2): 1989, 1990

External links

• Ralf Minge at National-Football-Teams.com
• (German) Official website