Germany are hoping to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics and Stefan Kuntz is the man responsible for guiding them to the latter stages of the tournament.
The 58-year-old former striker, who scored 179 Bundesliga goals, has a wealth of experience in football as a player, coach, technical director and chairman.
After retiring from the professional game in 1999, he went on to manage Borussia Neunkirchen, Karlsruher, Waldhof Mannheim and Ahlen.
Kuntz then worked for two of his former clubs, spending two years as technical director of Bochum and eight as chairman of Kaiserslautern.
He left that role to become manager of Germany’s Under-21s, who he led to victory in the 2017 and 2021 European Championships.
They also finished as runners-up in 2019, losing 2-1 to Spain in the final, with Nadiem Amiri’s late goal nothing but a consolation.
Because of his impressive results with the Under-21s, and extensive knowledge of Germany’s best young players, Kuntz was put in charge of the men’s team for the Olympics.
He has selected three overage players – Wolfsburg’s Maximilian Arnold, Bayer Leverkusen’s Amiri and Union Berlin’s Max Kruse – all of whom have represented their country at senior level.
His side have been drawn in Group D alongside Brazil, the Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia, with the top two going through to the quarter-finals.
Kuntz is well-known to English football fans for his role in knocking the Three Lions out of Euro 96 on penalties.
He grabbed the equaliser in the semi-final just 13 minutes after England had taken an early lead through Alan Shearer, and successfully converted his spot kick.
He then started in the final as Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 thanks to Oliver Bierhoff’s brace.
Despite only scoring six goals for the national team, they never lost a single game that Kuntz played in.
