Rehhagel quits as Greece boss

Euro 2004-winning coach draws nine-year tenure to a close

By Ben Collins   Last updated: 24th June 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Rehhagel quits as Greece boss

Rehhagel: Greece departure

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Otto Rehhagel has stepped down as Greece coach following their World Cup exit.

The German's contract expires at the end of this month and he has confirmed he will not be signing a new deal.

Rehhagel, who turns 72 in August, was appointed in 2001 and took Greek football to new heights, winning Euro 2004 despite going into the tournament as 100/1 outsiders.

But they failed to win a point at Euro 2008 and also crashed out at the group stage of this summer's World Cup.

Assistant coach Yiannis Topalidis confirmed that the former Werder Bremen and Kaiserslautern coach bid farewell to his players and stayed in South Africa rather than returning to Greece with the squad on Thursday.

"I have said what I had to say," Topalidis said.

Farewell

"I have said goodbye to the players and so has the coach."

Greece made an early exit after losing to South Korea and Argentina, although they kept alive hope of qualifying for the second round by beating Nigeria 2-1 in their second Group B game.

The Greek FA were expected to formally announce Rehhagel's successor on Thursday, with Portuguese coach Fernando Santos seen as favourite to take over.

The former AEK Athens and Panathinaikos boss left PAOK Salonika at the end of last season and reports in Greece suggest he has agreed a two-year contract.

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