ONLY one man has won the European Championship as a player and as a coach – and he should be familiar to most of the Tartan Army.
Berti Vogts was manager of Scotland the last time the country came close to qualifying for a major finals in November 2003. The Scots ultimately fell at the final hurdle losing 6-1 to the Netherlands on aggregate in the play-offs for EURO 2004 after a memorable, but ultimately fruitless, 1-0 win over the Dutch at Hampden courtesy of a superb James McFadden effort.
Scotland again find themselves involved in a play-off for this summer's finals with a place as a host team awaiting Steve Clarke's men if they can overcome Israel on March 26 and either Norway or Serbia on March 30. It's Scotland's best chance of reaching a European Championship finals since those days under Vogts.
The former Borussia Monchengladbach defender had mixed fortunes during his time in Scotland but he arrived in the country as a winner having guided Germany to victory at Euro 96 after a 1-0 over the Czech Republic at Wembley following up his European Championship success of 1972 as a squad member with West Germany when they beat the Soviet Union 3-0 in the final.
Who could join the club at EURO 2020?
There are two former winners among the coaches at UEFA EURO 2020:
Didier Deschamps (France)
Captained Les Bleus to victory at UEFA EURO 2000. He is only the third man to win a FIFA World Cup as a player (France, 1998) and coach (Russia, 2018). Like Vogts, he led the national team to the final in his first EURO as coach in 2016 – will he emulate the German’s success at the second attempt?
Ronald Koeman (Netherlands)
Marshalled the Oranje back line at the EURO 88 final. Koeman took charge of the Netherlands in 2018 and guided them to the UEFA Nations League final in 2019.
Which EURO 2020 coaches came close to winning as players?
Italy’s Roberto Mancini and England manager Gareth Southgate both had near misses. The Azzurri were knocked out by the Soviet Union in the 1988 semi-finals, the same stage that England’s run ended on home turf at EURO 96 following Southgate’s miss in a dramatic semi-final penalty shoot-out against . . . Vogts’ Germany.
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