Wolfgang Frank (21 February 1951 – 7 September 2013) was a German football manager and player. Frank was born in Reichenbach an der Fils, and made a total of 215 appearances in the Bundesliga during his playing career, scoring 89 goals. For the Germany national football B team, he scored three goals in six games. As a manager, Frank was at the helm of 16 different clubs and led Rot-Weiss Essen to the 1994 DFB-Pokal final, only to lose 3–1 to SV Werder Bremen at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. In his final year as a player, Frank trained as a teacher in sport and religion. He was inspired by Arrigo Sacchi's A.C.Milan and introduced the 4-4-2 system to Germany at a time when German teams played with a sweeper. Inspired by how Sacchi had got his team to press, marking space rather than individual players, Frank introduced this advanced tactical thinking into German football. He is credited with inspiring a renaissance in the Bundesliga which has inspired a new generation of managers such as Jürgen Klopp and Joachim Löw. Frank died in Mainz, aged 62. References External links 1951 births 2013 deaths People from Esslingen (district) Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region) Footballers from Baden-Württemberg German footballers Association football forwards West German expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Germany B international footballers Bundesliga players Eredivisie players VfL Kirchheim/Teck players VfB Stuttgart players AZ Alkmaar players Eintracht Braunschweig players Borussia Dortmund players 1. FC Nürnberg players German football managers FC Aarau managers FK Austria Wien managers MSV Duisburg managers SpVgg Unterhaching managers FCV Farul Constanța managers Kickers Offenbach managers Wuppertaler SV managers FC Carl Zeiss Jena managers 1. FSV Mainz 05 managers Rot-Weiss Essen managers 2. Bundesliga managers FC Winterthur managers Deaths from cancer in Germany 3. Liga managers West German expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands FC Wettingen managers Expatriate football managers in Switzerland German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland FC Sachsen Leipzig managers Expatriate football managers in Romania German expatriate sportspeople in Romania SV Wehen Wiesbaden managers K.A.S. Eupen managers Expatriate football managers in Belgium German expatriate sportspeople in Belgium West German footballers West German expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland West German football managers West German expatriate football managers