Stefan Kuntz

Stefan Kuntz (born 30 October 1962) is a German professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the head coach of the Turkish national team.

Kuntz represented the Germany national team between 1993 and 1997, reaching the 1994 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals and winning UEFA Euro 1996. He scored six goals from 25 full caps, including in the Euro 1996 semi-final elimination of England.

Club career
Kuntz's playing career lasted from 1983 until 1999. He made 449 appearances and scored 179 goals in the Bundesliga. Kuntz played for VfL Bochum, Bayer 05 Uerdingen, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Arminia Bielefeld and also played in Turkey for Beşiktaş J.K. In 1986 and 1994, Kuntz was the top scorer in the Bundesliga.

In 1995, Kuntz joined Turkish side Beşiktaş following request of his compatriot coach Christoph Daum. Kuntz made his 1.Lig debut on 13 August 1995 in an away game against Kayserispor that ended 1–1. On 24 September 1995, he scored his first goal at week 5 home encounter against Istanbulspor which ended 5–2.

International career
Germany manager Berti Vogts selected Kuntz for inclusion in the squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but the only match he played in was the round of sixteen fixture against Belgium. Germany were subsequently knocked out at the quarter-finals by Bulgaria.

At UEFA Euro 1996, Kuntz made regular appearances for the team and replaced the injured Jürgen Klinsmann for the semi-final against England. He played a key role in the game, scoring the equalizer soon after England took the lead, as well as scoring the fifth German penalty in the shootout which took it into sudden death. During his international career, Kuntz obtained 25 caps, scoring six goals. None of these caps ended in a defeat for Germany (20 wins, one win after penalty shootout and four draws), which is the German record for most caps without defeat.

Post-playing career
From 2006 to 2008, Kuntz was the athletic director of VfL Bochum. Between 2008 and 2016, he was the board chairman of 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

As coach of Germany U21 he gained an impressive record by reaching the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final thrice: in 2017, 2019 and 2021; his side won two out of three finals, first beat Spain 1–0 in the final, and in 2021, Germany defeated Portugal by the same scoreline.

On 19 September 2021, he was appointed the new head coach of the Turkey national team. He was then fired from the position on 20 September 2023, after two poor games against Armenia and Japan and a rather underwhelming performance at the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying, despite at the time, Turkey were in second place with three wins, one draw and one loss; it was largely believed that Kuntz's increasing unpopularity with many Turkish football fans led to his dismissal.

Player
Kaiserslautern
 * DFB-Pokal: 1989–90
 * Bundesliga: 1990–91
 * DFL-Supercup: 1991

Germany
 * UEFA European Championship: 1996

Individual
 * German Footballer of the Year: 1991

Manager
Germany U21
 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2017, 2021; runner-up: 2019