Not to be confused with Wolfgang Franke

Wolfgang Frank (21 February 1951 – 7 September 2013) was a German football manager 😆 and player.[1][2]

Frank was born in Reichenbach an der Fils, and made 215 appearances in the Bundesliga during his playing career, 😆 scoring 89 goals. For the Germany national football B team, he scored three goals in six games.

As a manager, Frank 😆 was at the helm of 16 clubs and led Rot-Weiss Essen to the 1994 DFB-Pokal final, only to lose 3–1 😆 to SV Werder Bremen at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

In his final year as a player, Frank trained as a teacher in 😆 sport and religion. He was inspired by Arrigo Sacchi's A.C.Milan and introduced the 4-4-2 system to Germany at a time 😆 when German teams played with a sweeper.[citation needed] Inspired by how Sacchi had got his team to press, marking space 😆 rather than individual players, Frank introduced this advanced tactical thinking into German football. He is credited with inspiring a renaissance 😆 in the Bundesliga which has inspired a new generation of managers such as Jürgen Klopp and Joachim Löw.