Dieter Brei is a former German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 footballer, now a football trainer.

Biography

Brei was born in Verl

Verl

Verl is a town in the district of Gütersloh in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approximately 15 km south of Bielefeld and 10 km east of Gütersloh....

 near Bielefeld

Bielefeld

Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

 in North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

. He began his football career in the early days of black and white television broadcasting. In 1970, he transferred to Arminia Bielefeld

Arminia Bielefeld

DSC Arminia Bielefeld is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of football, field hockey, figure skating and cue sports. The club has 11,394 members and the club colours are black, white and blue...

 in the Bundesliga

Fußball-Bundesliga

The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

, where he played in 43 games and scored 3 goals.

After the team's relegation in 1972, he transferred to Fortuna Düsseldorf

Fortuna Düsseldorf

' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...

 where he continued his playing career, scoring 30 goals in 221 games, until injuries forced him to retire in 1981. During this time he won as a member of the winning Fortuna team the DFB-Pokal

DFB-Pokal

The DFB-Pokal or DFB Cup is a German knockout football cup competition held annually. 64 teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga. It is considered the second most important national title in German football after the Bundesliga...

 in the years 1979 and 1980. Overall as a defensive and midfield player he played in 264 Bundesliga games, in which he scored 33 goals.

In 1974 Brei made his only appearance at national level, in the German B team, when he was put on as a substitute in Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 against Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. The high point, and simultaneously the low point, of his career was the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup of 16 May 1979, in which Fortuna Düsseldorf lost 3:4 to FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

 after extra time. Brei had to be substituted after only 25 minutes because of a knee injury, which despite two operations signalled the end of his playing career.

Fortuna Düsseldorf was Brei's first post as a trainer in the Bundesliga from 1985 to 1987. In the 1990s he trained Rot-Weiss Essen

Rot-Weiss Essen

Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia.- Early years :The club was formed as SV Vogelheim on 1 February 1907 out of the merger of two smaller clubs: SC Preussen and Deutsche Eiche. In 1910, Vogelheim came to an arrangement with Turnerbund...

 in the 2nd Bundesliga

2. Fußball-Bundesliga

- Changes in division set-up :* Number of clubs: currently 18. From 1974 to 1981 there were two conferences, each of 20 teams. In 1981–91 it had 20...

 and the Regionalliga

Regionalliga

Regionalliga is a designation in Germany for sports leagues, which are led by one or more regional federations. Regionalligen often fall below the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga of a given sport...

, FC Gütersloh

FC Gütersloh

FC Gütersloh 2000 is a German association football club based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia.- History :The club was formed in 1978 out of the merger of the football sides of Sport Verein Arminia and Deutsche Jugendkraft Gütersloh in the hopes that the new club would be more successful than...

 in the 2nd Bundesliga, and SC Verl

SC Verl

SC Verl is a German association football club based in Verl, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded on 6 September 1924, and since 1970 has consistently played in the higher echelons of amateur football.-History:...

 in the Regionalliga and the Amateur-Oberliga. Between October 2007 and June 2008 he trained the Oberliga

Oberliga (football)

The Oberliga is currently the name of the fifth tier of the German football leagues. Before the introduction of the 3rd Liga in 2008, it was the fourth tier...

 team SC Wiedenbrück 2000

SC Wiedenbrück 2000

SC Wiedenbrück is a German association football club from the city of Rheda-Wiedenbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia. The footballers are part of a sports club of some 1,150 members that also includes departments for dance, gymnastics, and table tennis.-History:...

.