The Hitzfeld phenomenon

Hitzfeld has become accustomed to winning

BBC Sport Online charts the glory trail of Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Ottmar Hitzfeld crowned an already brimming Bayern Munich trophy cabinet when he led them to Champions League glory last season.

The Bavarian club beat Spanish side Valencia on penalties in the final and ensured that their manager would go into football history.

Hitzfeld had become the first manager to lead two different clubs to Champions League glory after guiding Borussia Dortmund to victory against Juventus in 1997.

  Hitzfeld honours

Grasshopper Zurich
Swiss league title
1989/1990 & 1990/1991

Borussia Dortmund
German league title
1994/1995 & 1995/1996
Champions League 1997

Bayern Munich
German league title
1998/1999, 1999/2000, 2000/2001
Champions League 2001

The win also marked the completion of Hitzfeld's transformation of Bayern.

The club had previously been dubbed "FC Hollywood", but Hitzfeld had turned them into a disciplined and organised outfit.

His wrath was felt by such established stars as Bixente Lizarazu, Lothar Matthaus, Thomas Helmer, Mehmet Scholl and Giovane Elber, during his time at Bayern.

He once said of himself: "I'm the boss - and an authoritarian one.

"If you want to have a winning attitude you have to be ready to win every match - even in training."

Nobody took too much notice when the quiet but determined Hitzfeld took his first Bundesliga job at Dortmund in 1991.

But soon they were challenging Bayern's supremacy, beating them to the title in 1995 and 1996.

Then in the 1997 Champions League final Dortmund upset Italian giants Juventus 3-1 in Bayern's Olympic Stadium.

When I'm totally silent, it's a bad sign

Ottmar Hitzfeld

This was the ultimate ignominy for Bayern and in the summer of 1998 they poached Hitzfeld from their Ruhr Valley rivals.

The appointment was inspired, because three straight league titles have followed as well as Champions League trophy for the German giants.

Hitzfeld, who likes to describe himself as a football teacher, is regarded as a family man.

Like Houllier he is normally composed and studied, but again, there is a steely resolve within.

As Hitzfeld himself said: "When I'm totally silent, it's a bad sign."