Niko Kovac Fortune

Short introduction

Niko Kovac is a Croatian former soccer player born in Germany and current soccer coach. In his active career, he played among other clubs for Hertha BSC, Bayer Leverkusen and FC Bayern Munich as well as for the national team of Croatia. He became its coach after his active career before coaching Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Bayern Munich.

Early life

His parents come from Croatia, from where they emigrated to Berlin. There they moved to the Wedding district. In a local football club, Rapid Wedding, Niko Kovac took his first steps as a club footballer after he had previously kicked on the football fields in the area. He played for this rather small club until 1989 before moving to Hertha Zehlendorf, where he was used as a defender by the elderly. From there, Hertha hired him for the second Bundesliga in 1991, starting his real career as a professional in football.

Career

Niko Kovac made his professional football debut on November 2, 1991. A year later, he also scored his first professional football goal as a defender. Hertha BSC rose again to the Bundesliga, which also made Niko Kovac a first division player. He showed such high quality that Bayer 04 Leverkusen signed him in 1996. After 148 league games for Hertha BSC with 16 goals, he moved to Bayer 04 in the Rhineland.

Here he stayed three seasons in which he was used 77 times in the Bundesliga, which of course made him a regular. During this time he scored 8 times in the opposing goal and was runner-up in 1999. He also participated in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup with Bayer Leverkusen for the first time, so that he also made international appearances at club level.

At the same time as his move to Bayer Leverkusen, the debut for his parents’ national team took place. From 1996 to 2009, Niko Kovac played a total of 83 times for Croatia. He took part in four major tournaments with the 2002 and 2006 World Cup and the 2004 and 2008 European Championship. He announced his resignation in 2009, only to later become national coach of the same team.

For the time being, however, his career as an active player continued. After two seasons at Hamburger SV, he also moved to Bayern Munich for two seasons. Here he also won his first titles as a player in club football. In 2001 he won the World Cup with Bayern, in 2003 he won the double of the championship and the DFB Cup.

He then played for another three years in his hometown for Hertha BSC and ended his active career at FC Salzburg in Austria, where he was twice national champion.

It was there, in Salzburg, that his subsequent career as a coach began. First as a youth coach, then as an assistant coach. He then took over the U21 from Croatia and was national coach of Croatia from 2013 to 2015 as mentioned. For the following two years he was a coach at Eintracht Frankfurt, which he saved from relegation and then led to the DFB Cup victory in 2018.

This in turn motivated FC Bayern Munich to sign its former player as a coach. Although Niko Kovac won the DFB Cup and Championship doubles here in his first year, he was released early a few months later.

Career highlights

Purely in terms of sporting value, winning the 2001 World Cup must be placed at the top. However, the other national titles as players are worth all honors. As a coach, the highlight of his career was probably when he surprisingly won the 2018 DFB Cup final against favorite FC Bayern Munich with Eintracht Frankfurt.

His participation in two World Championships and two European Championships can also be counted as highlights of his work.

Famous quotes

“The best fans in the league are in Frankfurt. You have to say that so clearly. They have proven that over the past few years. ” During his time as a coach at FC Bayern Munich.

“If you stand together, if you move closely together, you can do anything.” After winning the DFB Cup with Eintracht Frankfurt.

“You can’t have self-doubt in football, or even in life.”

“Humility is a virtue that many people have lost.”

Amazing facts

In 2016, he received the Fair Play Prize of German Sports for his behavior towards the inferior relegation opponent 1. FC Nürnberg.

His brother Robert Kovac was also a Bundesliga player and has been his assistant coach at Robert Kovac’s coaching stations in recent years.

After graduating from the Lessing High School in Berlin, Niko Kovac studied business administration for eight semesters without completing it.

He is considered to be a very devout Catholic without, like many other players, paying particular attention to this.

Interestingly, he lost his job as Bayern Munich coach after a 1-5 loss to his previous club, Eintracht Frankfurt.