I first heard of the player Pierre Littbarski while playing Pro Evolution Soccer. He's on Classic Germany and has great stats. How good was he in real life, I've heard he was an amazing dribbler, is this true? I also know he finished runner up in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups and finally won the Cup in 1990. Did he give a significant contribution to the team in these cups?

I should do some research on him, he is the coach of Sydney FC if you didn't know, i never knew he was a good player himself.

i have seen a tiny bits of him from DVDs and he looked a good dribbler and a crrosser.

Probably the most technicaly gifted german player ever, i really like his style of play.

Do you know if he made a big impact in the 82, 86 and especially 1990 World Cups?

Pierre Littbaski was a very good player. He was an amazing dribbler, who also had a great cross. The first time I saw him he was playing for FC Cologne in Germany. Anyone interested in watching his games could get some from this site.

http://www.raresoccervideos.com/

Doesn't quite cut it in here.

Moved.

Though he is more of a legend then most of the players mentioned in the Legends board.

Why the hell did you move it to the European section? You could've at least moved it to the german football section.

Hi,

I know this reply may be a bit late, but hope my info would help me know more about my longtime soccer favorite Pierre Littbarski.

Yes, you are right, Litti (Littbarski's nickname) was one of the best dribbler in 80's. Same class of player to compare would be Giresse from France (French World cup member in 82, 86). It is really difficult for me to pick a current player who plays similar with him, cause modern soccer is quite different from the soccer 20 years ago. I would say, Overmars from Holland played a little bit like him, except Overmars was a much faster player.

In World cup 82', Litti played his best soccer of his life. He played as a winger for West Germany. Not on right side or left side, he played winger on both sides. I would say, because of his amazing dribbling skill, he created a lot of scoring chances for the strikers like Rummenigge and Fischer.
The 82' World cup semi is still one of the best classic game in soccer history, and Litti was one of the key player to help West Germany to win this game. He first scored on a rebound, and W. Germany took the lead of the game, then France tied the game, and scored 2 goals in the first half of the overtime. In the 2nd half of the overtime, Litti first crossed in a low ball for Rummenigge to cut the lead in 1 goal, and later on, he also crossed a ball from the left for Horst Hrubesch on the far side, who headed the ball back to the center for Fischer to make a bicycle kick to tie the game. In the shootout, Litti make his penalty shot again, and later on West Germany went on to beat France. If you want to watch the best from Littbarski, you gotta to watch this game. You can find this game from the internet easily.

In World cup 86', Litti was injured badly, and mostly used as a substitude. One important contribution he made for West Germany in 86 was, he scored the decisive, game winning penalty in the shootout contest.

In World cup 90', Littbarski was already 30 years old, he was not as quick and athletic as he was in 82'. His favorite position was also moved from being a winger to an attack midfielder. In the late 80's, Litti and Hassler formed the famous Koln midfield line to compete with the Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich. Before the World cup, Beckenbauer once said that team West Germany could not play Litti and Hassler at the same time, cause they are very similar type of player (attacking midfield). Hassler was an obvious choice cause he was much younger, and athletic. As the tournament went on, both of them proved they could co-exist together, and finally, Litti and Hassler altogether played in the final till the last second, and helped West Germany captured their 3rd title. Although Litti did not play as much as other midfielders like Hassler, or Matthaus, everytime he stepped on the field, Litti would always find chances to show off his dribbling skills and create scoring chances. The finest moments were, he scored a rocket left footer in the game against Columbia; he played a very competitive game in the round of 16 against Holland, and in the final game, he once dribble throught 3 Argentinian defenders and make a hard low shot which just barely miss the post. I would say, in World cup 90, he was not quite as important in 82, but definitely he got more experience and smarter in 90.

People would say Overmars, Giggs, or some other players are great wingers in the past several years. I truely agree of this. One thing Littbarski made himself above them was, not only he won a World Cup and contributed in 3 World Cup finals, Litti was a player who could play both side, and played excetionally well with both feet.

Thanks for that insight /\

I had heard he was a very good player, I just didn't know if it was true.

he was amazing. he was small and fast, he was a wonderful dribbler and an amazing addition to the german nt. litti is a legend, without a doubt. okay, he hair looked like a raped poodle, but he was a funny guy, a cheeky player and a very talented one aswell.

he did a great job as a coach in japan and now for sydney. i was a huge fan of him and matthäus during the wc 90. i had his name writen on a plain white shirt.

litti = legend. amazing player.

Hehe EX Manager of Sydney FC now

Thanks for the info guys I'm viewing this topic a year from when I first started it! I knew with the stats that he has in Pro Evo that he must have been a great player.

Indeed ^^ Some vids if you are interested :
Goal of the season 1985
Littbarski playing in J-league 1993

Wow, those clips of Littbarski playing in Japan are amazing. He was 33 in those clips and still showed great dribbling ability, agility and athleticism. He must've been even more amazing in his 20's. His dribbling ability seems to have been up there with Maradona and George Best.

yeah, i loved him! he did also a great job as a coach! i really think he is one of those german legends that people forget far too soon. sadly.

litti was a great player but he was by far the worst coach we ever had in duisburg...

did he not lead sfc to the title? people there seemed pretty pleased with his work... he also was very good in japan. but in germany, we sould remember him as a player

could someone reupp the videos...they are removed

here you go mate:



i couldn´t find the other one, sorry

He's staying on as the manager of Avispa Fukuoka (Japanese second division and my "local" team), apparently. We had a pretty disappointing season, but another season under his guidance should result in a more serious run toward promotion a year from now.

Was linked with Norwich at one point, but I guess nothing came from those rumors.

I like Pierre a lot and given the team he had in the inaugural A-League he did extraordinarily well to get Sydney to win the title...

he is a legend and i really hope one day he will be coming back to germany to do some coaching! but if i am not mistaken his wife is asian, so i guess that is one of the reasons he sticks around the east a bit more. what a shame, i could name him some teams over here that could use his help anytime.

i wonder how we could forget him for such a long time. he was such a genius...