Career
He is predominately remembered for his first spell with, where he led them to the 2. Bundesliga title and several seasons in the Bundesliga as well as being the first foreign coach to manage the Chinese national football team Klaus Schlappner"s early career in football was not particularly eventful he would play for his local football team in Lampertheim in his youth and only progress up to amateur football or lower league regional football.
Bundesliga in the 1982-1983 league season.
During his time with them he would help establish them within the Bundesliga for the next several seasons and oversee them through some of their most successful periods in the clubs history until he left in 1987. He would go on to rejoin former club SV Darmstadt 98 in the second tier to help them fight for promotion during the 1987-1988 league season where they narrowly missed out on a position to the Bundesliga by losing a play-off position.
The following seasons would see other second tier clubs 1. He would nevertheless stay within China as a technical adviser for the football federation until he returned to Germany to manage again in 1996 to help them for their promotion bid to return to the Bundesliga, however his return was disappointing and he left before the season ended.
He would move away from senior management but would return to Asia to help Iran to establish the newly re-branded Iran Pro League during 2000 as well as acting as an adviser for the Mongolian Football Federation in 2006.
