Association confirms death
Mourning for coaching legend: Sepp Piontek is dead
Updated February 19, 2026 – 11:50 amReading time: 2 minutes
He was once active as a player at Werder Bremen and then started a long coaching career. Now Sepp Piontek has died.
German football mourns Sepp Piontek. The long-time trainer died at the age of 85 after a short, serious illness in his adopted home of Denmark. The Danish television station TV2 reported this on Thursday, referring to his family.
The German has lived in Denmark since the early 1980s, where he made history as national coach. From 1979 to 1990 he looked after the Danish national team and led the team to the semi-finals of the European Championship in 1984. Two years later they qualified for a World Cup for the first time. After 115 international matches, his term ended and he then took over the Turkish national team until 1993. In 2011, Piontek was inducted into the Danish Football Hall of Fame.
“Sepp will forever be remembered as one of the most influential national coaches in the history of Danish football,” association director Peter Møller wrote in a statement. Piontek’s importance goes far beyond results, as he also had a decisive influence on culture and professionalism.
Piontek ended his coaching career in 2004. He had previously looked after Greenland as national coach for the second time. Curious: For this work he was paid, among other things, fish products.
As a player, Piontek was active for Werder Bremen for a long time. He won the DFB Cup with the North Germans in 1961 and the German championship in 1965. Bremen was later his first coaching station. Piontek then took on further positions at Fortuna Düsseldorf, in Haiti and at FC St. Pauli before finding a new professional home in Denmark.
