Guido Ulrich Buchwald (born 24 January 1961) is a German former professional football player. Throughout his career he played as a defender. He is currently director of football of Stuttgarter Kickers.^[1]

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Guido Buchwald

Buchwald with Urawa in 2004.
Personal information
Full name	Guido Ulrich Buchwald
Date of birth	(1961-01-24) 24 January 1961 (age 63)
Place of birth	West Berlin, West Germany
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Stuttgarter Kickers (Director of football)
Youth career
1969–1977	SV Wannweil
1977–1978	TSV Pliezhausen
1978–1979	Stuttgarter Kickers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1979–1983	Stuttgarter Kickers	146	(18)
1983–1994	VfB Stuttgart	325	(28)
1994–1997	Urawa Red Diamonds	127	(11)
1997–1999	Karlsruher SC	40	(3)
Total		638	(60)
International career
1980	West Germany U-21	1	(0)
1983–1984	West Germany Olympic	9	(1)
1984–1994	Germany	76	(4)
Managerial career
2004–2006	Urawa Reds
2007	Alemannia Aachen
2012	Stuttgarter Kickers (interim)
Medal record Men's football Representing  Germany FIFA World Cup Winner 1990 Italy UEFA European Championship Runner-up 1992 Sweden
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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The best game of Buchwald's career was the final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup victory for West Germany against Argentina where he effectively marked Diego Maradona for almost the entire match, earning him the nickname "Diego".^[2] He was also part of Germany's disappointing 1994 FIFA World Cup campaign and collected in his career 76 caps.^[3]

Buchwald began his professional football career in 1983 with VfB Stuttgart. He played 325 games in the German Bundesliga for this club, scoring 28 goals.^[4] The low-point of his career was in 1986 when coach Franz Beckenbauer did not include him in his team for the World Cup in Mexico. He was however part of the squad which won the World Cup in Italy four years later.

The same year Stuttgart lost the final of the German Cup against Bayern Munich and in 1989 the final of the UEFA Cup was also lost, but they managed to win two German championships (1984, 1992).

His personal highlight in his Bundesliga career was on the last day of play in the 1991–92 season, when he scored the deciding goal against Bayer Leverkusen that won Stuttgart the match and the Championship – just six minutes before the games' end.

In 1994, he signed with the Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds before returning to Germany in 1998 to help Karlsruher SC avoid relegation. He could not save the team and after one more season playing in the second division he retired but stayed with the club as a director of sports.

After a stop with the Stuttgarter Kickers (again as director of sports) he went back to Japan where he was managing his old club. He led his team to the "closing" championship. In 2005, won the title on Emperor's Cup. In 2006, he won the title on both J-League and Emperor's Cup.

Buchwald then returned to Germany to become manager of Alemannia Aachen. After five months on duty he was fired by club management on 26 November 2007.

On 1 November 2010, Buchwald returned to the Stuttgarter Kickers as a member of the board responsible for the first team. He took over as interim manager in November 2012 after the sacking of Dirk Schuster, before relinquishing this duty a month later when Gerd Dais was appointed.