Gerd Zeise

Gerd Friedrich Horst Zeise (born 6 September 1952)[1] is a German football coach, best known for being the manager of the Myanmar national team from 2015 to 2018.

Since the beginning of his engagement in Myanmar's football landscape in 2011, he was responsible for coaching the U-19, U-20, U-21 as well as the U-23 team and led them through various tournaments. In 2015, Zeise was appointed head coach of the Myanmar national team after the departure of Radojko Avramović.

One of the most remarkable achievements during his time in Myanmar is the gold medal of the BIDC-Cup in 2011 in Cambodia[2] with Myanmar’s U-21 team. In the same tournament, in 2013, Myanmar’s U-19 team won the silver medal[3] among a field of U-23 teams. Furthermore, Zeise claimed the gold medal in the 2014 Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy tournament in Brunei with Myanmar’s participating U-19 team among all U-21 teams of South East Asia.

It was received positively as he had led the under-20 team to the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time in Myanmar's football history.[4] The following year, he was manager during the 2016 AFF Championship which Myanmar co-hosted.[5] After 12 years of non-participation, Zeise reached the semi-finals with the national team, where they were beaten by their fellow co-hosts, Thailand. Zeise left by mutual consent in March 2018, after the team was beaten by Kyrgyzstan, and failed to qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.[6]

Zeise started his career in several stations in Germany, such as Rot-Weiss Essen, FC 08 Homburg, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Wuppertaler SV. After that he coached the first division KRC Harelbeke and prior to his engagement in Myanmar he managed the SHB Đà Nẵng in Vietnam followed by the New Radiant SC in Maldives.