King Otto

An incredible film of an underdog story that will warm your heart. It has a different feel from a usual sports doc, it's much more intelligently done.

"King Otto" is a Documentary in which we follow the story of Otto Rehhagel since the time he started coaching the national football team of Greece and later winning 2024 UEFA European Football Championship.

I enjoyed this documentary mainly because I knew and lived this amazing story. The way the story was presented from the start and the difficulties Otto Rehhagel faced due to his different culture than Greece and its people, was very interesting and informative since many people including myself did not know that. Both the highlights of many matches and the interviews of players and staff were presented very well and made clear what was happening back then. In conclusion, I have to say that "King Otto" is a beautiful documentary and I highly recommend everyone to watch it.

The Greek story is good and interesting to hear from Rehhagal. However the subtitles in this film (which appear a lot for German/Greek etc) are inexplicably minute. They are also in white and often appear against a white background making them extremely difficult to see. Extremely frustrating.

This documentary isn't a story about a national team winning a trophy. It's an excellent example of how an unbalanced team can regain balance by discipline and believing in themselves, controlling their feelings and achieving the unthinkable worldwide. This national team offered the world the sense that nothing is impossible to achieve. Most media press criticised their gameplay, even their great achievement, not because they were jealous but because they never thought that a national team so disoriented would become ready to fight by all means with every opponent. Don't get me wrong; it's not easy to achieve the same thing twice. You have only one change. And this national team nailed it.

I still remember it vividly when Greece stunned Europe or even the world when winning this in 2004. I'll tell 100% the truth, I wasn't an admirer of their tactics, more so at the time, but as I've grown up I realise that it was their only chance of playing a decent game against most teams, let alone winning them. There's no fluke about beating Portugal twice IN Portugal, drawing against Spain, beating the reigning World Cup and European Championship holders, France and a very decent Czech Republic side. I also seen how much more arrogant and unfairly the media were towards them than I did at the time, especially the English media and pundits. Sour grapes.

As the saying goes: You can only play with the cards you're dealt with and at the end of the day, all that matters is the final-score.