Felix Magath

Felix Magath
0Full Name	Wolfgang-Felix Magath
0Date of Birth	26 Jul 1953
0Place of Birth	Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, West Germany
0Date of Death	{{{dod}}}
0Place of Death	{{{pod}}}
0Fulham career	2014
0Win percentage	20%
0Honours	n/a
0Other clubs	Hamburg (as General Manager) (1986-1988) FC Saarbrücken (as General Manager) (1989-1990) Bayer Uerdingen (as General Manager) (1990-1992) Bremerhaven (as Player-Coach) (1992-1993) Hamburg (as Assistant Manager) (1993-1995) Hamburg (1995-1997) Nürnberg (1997-1998) Werder Bremen (1998-1999) Frankfurt (1999-2001) Stuttgart (2001-2004) Bayern Munich (2004-2007) Wolfsburg (2007-2009) & (2011-2012) Schalke (2009-2011)

Felix Magath was a former first team manager of Fulham, having been appointed during the 2013-14 season on 14 February, relieving René Meulensteen of his duties in charge of the team. Known for his strict and stoic nature, his managerial abilities had only been on show in his native Germany prior to his move to Fulham having managed most of the biggest clubs in the Bundesliga over a 17-year stint. He has a reputation for saving relegation-threatened clubs, which was one of the main reasons he was brought to the club at the time. Things did not work out for Felix and he was sacked in September 2014 after only three league wins in 19 matches.

Managerial Career

Before Fulham

Felix spent the majority of his playing career at Hamburg, where he made well over 300 appearances as an attacking midfielder whilst also representing West Germany on 43 occasions.Prior to joining Hamburg, he had played for a local side Viktoria Aschaffenburg before moving to a then-Division 2 side FC Saarbrücken.

Having suffered a career-ending knee injury in 1986, he retired from playing shortly after the World Cup held that year. He was quickly appointed as General Manager for Hamburg, the club with which he spent so many years with. After two seasons, he moved afield to another former club FC Saarbrücken to occupy the same role there, before moving on to Bayer Uerdingen as General Manager once more.

In 1992, he was offered the chance of playing once more, though it was for fourth-tier club FC Bremerhaven. He represented them as Player-Coach for one season and helped them to the Championship title. In the close season, he rejoined Hamburg as Reserve team manager before shortly becoming Assistant manager under Benno Möhlmann in during 1993-94. After Möhlmann was sacked as manager in October 1995, Felix was handed the reins and took his first big managerial job. During his first season in charge, he had a successful run whereby the club qualified for the UEFA Cup, though the following season was less satisfactory and the board sacked him after he could only lead them to 13th position.

Over the next few years, he gained a reputation for saving relegation-threatened clubs from going down, and it was whilst at his next club Nürnberg that he took over in September 1997 that he began this trend. Newly-promoted to the second tier of the Bundesliga and struggling in their first few matches before he took over, Nürnberg came from the relegation zone to third position over the course of 1997-98 under Felix, and they were duly promoted. Unfortunately, differences in opinion with the club president Michael A. Roth led to him departing when his revelation at the club had only just begun. He then had short stints at Werder Bremen and Frankfurt where once again he helped lift out of relegation trouble.

After a dissapointing stint at Frankfirt which saw them slide back into a relegation place, Felix was sacked. He bounced back with what was to become one of his most successful stints when he took over fellow relegation battlers Stuttgart a few weeks after. Having narrowly avoided relegation in 2001, Stuttgart finished 2001–02 in a mid-table position. The club went then on to become 2002–03 Bundesliga runners-up and finished the 2003–04 season in a very respectable fourth. During this time, he had also introduced a group of players from the Stuttgart youth ranks, such as Timo Hildebrand, Andreas Hinkel and Kevin Kurányi, who became known as "die jungen Wilden" (wild youth). The Stuttgart stint was also the first time had also combined the head coach and the director of football roles.

Having impressed with Stuttgart, Felix was handed the Bayern Munich job on 1 July 2004. In his first season, he was able to lead his team to victory in both the league and cup thus completing the double, a feat which would be repeated in 2005–06, the first time ever in the competition's history. However, after a slow start to the 2006–07 season, with the team mired in fourth place which would not qualify them for the Champions League, Felix was sacked on 31 January 2007.

In June 2007, he signed a contract with Wolfsburg as Head coach and director of football. He led them to play in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup and the following season's Champions League, the latter as league champions for the first time. Before 2008–09 had ended, Felix had agreed on a four-year contract with Schalke, again as both Head coach and director of football, starting on 1 July 2009. Schalke finished Felix's first season in charge as runners-up, but after a series of disappointing domestic performances and growing player discontent, he was sacked in March 2011. The following day, Felix claimed that he had not been informed of his dismissal. Only 48 hours later on 18 March, he rejoined then relegation-battling Wolfsburg, the side he had previously led to the league title in 2009. Fitting his reputation, he steered the club to safety, but though the club invested heavily, he could only achieve a mid-table finish in the following 2011–12 season. After only five points in eight matches (and no goals and points in the last four games) in the 2012–13 season, Magath left the club by mutual consent on 25 October 2012.

Fulham (2014)

Felix signed an 18-month contract on 14 February 2014 as first team Manager of Fulham with immediate effect, following the lack of points won under René Meulensteen, whom owner Shahid Khan had appeared to have lost patience with and had him relieved of his duties.

Due to his previous success in Germany, both with winning Bundesliga titles and his record of saving clubs nearing relegation, Felix was thought to have been the main target of CEO Alistair Mackintosh to pull the club out of the relegation zone and restore their Premier League future. Unfortunately for everyone involved at the club including Felix himself, his entire reign in charge was a disaster from beginning to end. He failed to prevent Fulham from relegation to the Championship, and rumours around his training philosophy and freezing out of players he did not like would appear in the media.

In the build up to the 2014-15 season, there was a strong sense of optimism surrounding the club and the bookmakers were strongly tipping Fulham to bounce back to the Premier League. Felix had virtually got rid of 90% of the first team squad from the previous season, and an emphasis on bringing through many of the talented players within the academy. As well as many extra signings, the general consensus among fans was that Fulham would at least fight for a play-off spot. However, this was never to be. In 7 league matches, Felix managed just one draw and six losses. A combination of constantly changing lineups, baffling substitutions, switching formations and generally 'losing the dressing room' meant that fans were in uproar as to why he hadn't been sacked sooner.

Felix had only managed 3 league wins in 19 matches.

Fulham record

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
League	19	3	4	12	22	43	-21	16%
FA Cup	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	--%
League Cup	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Total	20	4	4	12	23	43	-20	20%

Career honours

Stuttgart

• Bundesliga
  • Runners-up (1): 2002-03
• Intertoto Cup
  • Winners (1): 2002

Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga
  • Winners (2): 2004-05, 2005-06
• DFB Cup
  • Winners (2): 2004-05, 2005-06
• German League Cup
  • Winners (1): 2004

Wolfsburg

• Bundesliga
  • Winners (1): 2008-09

Schalke

• Bundesliga
  • Runners-up (1): 2009-10

External links and references