Former German international Dietmar ‘Didi’ Hamann was one of my favourite players during his playing days. Now the 37 year old has been named as the new manager at non-league Conference side Stockport County, who after 105 years in the football league were relegated at the end of last season from League Two.
The club only recently have been taken over by a Liverpool-based consortium headed by Tony Evans, whose first decision was to appoint Hamann. The aim of the new management and Hamann is to bring the club back into the football league.
Hamann had ended his career in February at League One side MK Dons were he was assistant coach and player before becoming an assistant coach to Swede Sven Göran Eriksson at Leicester City FC for the remainder of the 2010/11 season.
During his playing days Hamann was a midfield strategist. Some would say his style was lethargic, he often slowed down the game and wasn’t the most creative but still an influential player wherever he played.
Didi Hamann came out of the youth system at Bayern Munich and went on to play 59 times for Germany. He won the German Bundesliga, German Cup and UEFA Cup amongst others at the Bavarian giants before winning the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, English FA Cup and League Cup titles with Liverpool.
In Germany Hamann will be mostly remembered for scoring in the 1-0 victory against England at Wembley on October 7, 2000; the last goal to be scored at the old Wembley stadium and being part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad which went on to reach the finals only to lose to Brazil.
