Josef Emanuel Hubertus "Sepp" Piontek (born 5 March 1940) is a German former footballer and manager.
Playing career
Born in Wrocław during WW2. Piontek started his playing career with VfL Germania Leer. Between 1963 and 1972, the full-back played 203 Bundesliga matches with 14 goals for SV Werder Bremen (he previously registered 75 matches and one goal with the side in Oberliga Nord (1960–1963), prior to the creation of Bundesliga), adding six caps (no goals) for the West German national team.
Coaching career
After retiring he managed, in Germany, Werder Bremen (1971–1975), and later Fortuna Düsseldorf (1975–1976) and FC St. Pauli (1978–1979). In 1979, Piontek became Danish national team coach after having previously managed Haiti (1976–1978). He sat through 115 international matches, leading Denmark to their first ever World Cup participation in the 1986 tournament. His period as national team coach came just after the introduction of professional players in the national team, and under his reign the Denmark team became known as "Danish Dynamite". He quit as Denmark coach in April 1990 after the Danish national team failed to qualify for 1990 FIFA World Cup, and later coached Turkey from an advice by fellow German and Piontek's teacher Jupp Derwall from May 1990 to 1993, in which though failed to qualify for neither UEFA Euro 1992 and 1994 FIFA World Cup, helped sparking a massive revival in Turkish football fortunes which would be witnessed by the time Piontek left.
In the 1990s, Piontek returned to Denmark, where he coached Danish clubs Aalborg BK and Silkeborg IF, and subsequently worked with the Greenland national team. He currently earns a living as a lecturer.