By Playfuls Team German football coach Rudy Gutendorf has died at the age of 93 after a long journey over the world that crowned a world record with 55 teams, including 18 teams.
"With his death, we lost someone who always enriched us with his big heart and positivity," Gutendorf's family said in a statement. His son said his father died of old age.
Born in Koblenz on the Rhine, Gutendorf trained 55 teams in more than 30 countries around the world, including Zimbabwe and Antigua. He has worked in football on six continents.
Gottendorf ended his career as a Toss Koblenz player in 1953 and received a training license the following year.
He did not move directly to Germany, where he first began his career there, taking over Duisburg and leading him to second place in the first Bundesliga in 1964, and saved Schalke from relegation.
His adventurous love and support from the German government prompted him to move between modest teams in Africa, Asia and Pacific countries.
He trained Rwanda between 1999 and 2000 as the African country recovered from a civil war in 1994 that killed nearly 1 million people.
"This amount of hatred is unbelievable but I was able to unite two tribes to play football well," he said in an interview with the BBC in 2013, referring to the then disputed Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
The late coach is known for his command of small teams such as Bermuda, Botswana, Grenada, Nepal, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago.
Former FIFA president Joseph Blatter has described Gutendorf as a football aid worker.
In 1974, Gutendorf took over as Chile coach and led him to the World Cup finals in Germany to be the biggest success of his coaching career, but left the team after the military coup in Chile.
His last experience with Samoa was in 2003.