World Soccer Manager of the Year Jupp Heynckes

While the vast majority of retired workers have to make do with a watch or a clock on their send-off, Jupp Heynckes was the recipient of a far more substantial gift last spring, receiving widespread adulation and critical acclaim for his role as the architect of Bayern Munich’s perfect season, winning the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup.

Fifteen years after steering Real Madrid to victory over Zinedine Zidane’s Juventus in the 1998 Champions League Final, “Don Jupp” had a smile as wide as the Rhine as Bayern celebrated their fifth European title,soccer jerseys cheap, at Wembley in May. And as only the fourth coach to lead two different clubs to the biggest prize in European football, his place in the record books is assured.

Cynics might suggest any reasonably competent coach could have made hay with a 2012-13 Bayern squad stacked with talent and experience, but that would be grossly unfair on the 68-year-old former Borussia Monchengladbach and West Germany front runner. With expectations sky high,cheap soccer jerseys, the dressing room full of wilful star names and the media spotlight raining relentlessly on the club,world cup jerseys,custom soccer jerseys, the man responsible for the first team?at Bayern has many balls to keep up in the air. So it says everything about Heynckes that he has not once been caught napping, not even when the club announced midway through last term that they intended to bring in Pep Guardiola at the end of the season.

Heynckes, keen to stay for another campaign at least,custom soccer jerseys, felt he was being prodded towards the exit,custom soccer jerseys, but rather than whipping up a storm in the press he kept his head down and concentrated on the job in hand, maintaining the intensity of his players and making the right tactical and selection calls.

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