Walking in Lorant's footsteps - Streich, Baumgart and the lost art of the Bundesliga "zampano"
In the 1990s 1860 Munich boss Werner Lorant was the definition of the Bundesliga zampano head coach. At a time of laptop coaches Christian Streich and Steffen Baumgart still stand out today.
SC Freiburg head coach Christian Streich and 1. FC Köln boss Steffen Baumgart might have very different personalities with very different world views. What they do have in common is that they are the last of a dying breed of Bundesliga head coaches. In Germany, coaches with a bigger-than-life personalities were often described as “zampanos” in the 1990s.
Perhaps the biggest of all zampanos was 1860 Munich boss Werner Lorant. Under Lorant, 1860 Munich became the first club in German football to manage back-to-back promotions from the Regionalliga (then the third division) to Bundesliga from 1993 to 1994. Lorant then kept 1860 in the Bundesliga and almost guided the club to the Champions League, narrowly losing out to Leeds United in the qualifiers in 2001.
Lorant would coach 363 games in Munich and briefly turned Die Löwen into one of the biggest clubs in German football. But he was not just known for his success with 1860 but also his quotes and antics on and off the field. His book Eine beinharte Story: Wer Angst hat verliert (A tough story: Those who fear will lose) is full of one-liners and quotes about Lorant’s tough demeanor.
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