2023-09-11 23:09:00
Rudi Völler was spot on with his first decision.
Choosing the bus trip over the train trip to Dortmund was an excellent choice on Monday – because the planned ICE connection was supposed to stop in Wolfsburg in the morning in a completely cliché manner. This lucky hand will continue to be required of the one-game national coach in the coming days. In many areas.
As DFB sports director, the eternal stand-in Völler not only has to feverishly look for his own successor. Julian Nagelsmann is currently considered the ideal solution. Völler also has to somehow survive the game against the extremely strong runner-up France on Tuesday (9 p.m. in the live ticker), the lifeless German national team urgently needs a new spirit.
After signing a few autographs in Dortmund, Völler quickly scurried into the hotel and rigorously held the players accountable. “We can’t shit ourselves now. We’re still Germany,” he told this recently structureless collection of professionals who could hardly be called a team anymore. “The boys can do it too, they all come from top clubs.”
Völler explains Flick-Aus: “It just didn’t work anymore”
Matthäus brings Sammer into play
Of course, the priority is to find a national coach. Nagelsmann could currently be seen on a recruiting poster: We want you! According to “SID” information, despite the financially tense situation at the DFB, the costs should be of secondary importance, even if there appear to be reservations in the regional associations.
Lothar Matthäus brought a surprising name into play on Monday. “I know that Matthias Sammer would do it,” the record national player told “SID” at an appointment at the Dortmund Football Museum. At least until the European Championships. After that, he could imagine Jürgen Klopp as a long-term solution: “If you can get Jürgen Klopp after the European Championships, then I agree that a solution can be found by the summer,” said Matthäus.
The problem: Klopp is tied to Liverpool FC until 2026 – and has so far made no move to leave his employer before then.
Matthias Sammer
Fotocredit: Getty Images
Sammer once coached Borussia Dortmund to the title. As a former sports director, he also has the DFB stable smell and is a member of the task force founded after the World Cup. However, he withdrew from day-to-day business for health reasons.
Finally, the Dresden native again gave the chief warning (“We are down”) and advised the association about the (failed) engagement of Sami Khedira as sports director. With a high-profile assistant at his side, Sammer would be “a practical model,” writes the “SZ”.
He didn’t know that Sammer was “doing badly,” Matthäus continued, adding: “Matthias has now, I would say, expressed himself in such a way that he would be ready if he was needed.”
Nagelsmann as a tricky personality
So it’s more like Nagelsmann?
The former Bayern coach is under contract in Munich until 2026. On the one hand, it would have to be triggered there, whereby the record champions could strongly accommodate the association. On the other hand, Nagelsmann, like Louis van Gaal (72), who has to rest because of cancer, is hardly available for a DFB pennant and a ball. A contract package over several years can quickly cost 20 to 30 million euros.
But it is questionable whether Nagelsmann can even be won for a national team right now. “I think that at 36 years old he is not yet at the point where he would rather want and need to work with a team every day,” suspects Matthäus.
Julian Nagelsmann is considered Flick’s successor
Photo credit: Image
Stefan Kuntz is also highly valued by the association. The 1996 European champion is shaky as Turkey’s national coach and could therefore become available. He has led the U21s to two European Championship titles, is a popular figure and would be significantly cheaper. Oliver Glasner, who has no club, is also frequently mentioned.
The Austrian is considered an excellent specialist, won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt and was previously successful with VfL Wolfsburg. However, if the DFB is seriously interested, it will have to hurry: Glasner has been linked to Olympique Lyon.
Schmidt too expensive, Völler not a long-term solution
Meanwhile, legendary coach Felix Magath got himself into the game. The three-time champion coach would be confident of getting the German national team back on track as the successor to the dismissed national coach Hansi Flick in the nine months until the home European Championships.
He has “shown often enough” that he is able to “lift up unsettled teams and give them so much confidence that they were able to perform very well again. That is what the DFB needs at the moment “, said the 70-year-old on the radio station “NDR 90.3”.
DFB under pressure: Time is flying
With the European Championship at home in just nine months, the DFB and the sports director absolutely cannot afford to make a wrong decision. At the same time, the players have to be built up and shaken out of their lethargy.
“We are not good enough right now. The team has to question itself,” demands Ilkay Gündogan, who has just been appointed captain by Hansi Flick. Joshua Kimmich, who remains open as to whether he will be allowed to return to the center, and Thomas Müller made similar statements. Niklas Süle is missing for the time being for a good reason: he is becoming a father for the second time.
What is now needed is the departure into a new euphoria called for by DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. But where do you get it from? Völler is responsible for the game against Kylian Mbappé and Randal Kolo Muani, which will hardly be a good match.
The trip to the USA in October to prepare for the 2026 World Cup is controversial due to the strain. But the trip will be the debut of the “EM savior”.
Time flies. Not just for Rudi Völler.
Embarrassment against Japan: DFB crisis getting worse
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