Hansi Flick is no longer the German national coach

Around eight months before the European Football Championship, the reeling host Germany pulled the ripcord and parted ways with coach Hansi Flick. The day after the 4-1 defeat against Japan, the association drew conclusions and ended the 58-year-old’s tenure after two years and 25 games. The two sports directors Rudi Völler, 19 years after his resignation as team boss, and Hannes Wolf as well as former national player Sandro Wagner are taking over on an interim basis.

Flick, who started his job with eight wins, seemed unsustainable after his third defeat in a row. The 1:4 against Japan on Saturday was the fifth game without a win in a row and thus a continuation of the rapid downward trend under Flick. The duel with vice world champion France awaits on Tuesday.

“The committees agreed that the senior men’s national team needs new impetus after the recent disappointing results,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf, according to the statement. “With a view to the European Championships in our own country, we need a spirit of optimism and confidence. For me personally, it is one of the most difficult decisions in my term of office so far.” Sporting success has “top priority. That’s why the decision was unavoidable,” said Neuendorf. According to the association, a successor to the home European Championship in 2024 should be presented “in a timely manner”.

Is Nagelsmann coming now?

According to the Bild newspaper and the Funke media group, the DFB is now trying hard to recruit Julian Nagelsmann. The 36-year-old was chased away from FC Bayern and is still contractually bound to the Munich team. Several names are being traded. Jürgen Klopp is revered at Liverpool. Ralf Rangnick works successfully with Austria. And Stefan Kuntz, who was preferred to Flick, is coaching Turkey.

Oliver Glasner, an Upper Austrian who led Eintracht Frankfurt to Europa League triumph in 2022, would be available. The 49-year-old, who is taking a break after leaving Eintracht in the summer, was brought into the game not least by the daily newspaper Bild and would be an absolute novelty: the DFB team has never been led by a foreign coach.

“I think we’re doing well and I’m the right coach.” That was the sentence from Flick, who will stay in Wolfsburg from this weekend. A weekend in which the deep problems, the cracks and the desolate state of the DFB selection became clear, just like in the disastrous preliminary round exit at the World Cup in Qatar nine months ago. At that time, the DFB had stuck with Flick, but nothing had improved since then – on the contrary. The last time there were three defeats in a row was almost 40 years ago.

Worrying condition

“We are convinced of what we are doing. That’s why it continues like this for me,” Flick said on Saturday evening. He was allowed to lead training on Sunday morning, but then things turned out differently. As in 2000, when Völler stepped in during a deep crisis, the former world champion is now sitting on the bench again.

The team boss, his team, which he had again overwhelmed with experiments, the DFB – the overall picture was worrying nine months before the home European Championship. Völler spoke to the fans before training and said it was “natural that we would stand here.” Flick said nothing more.

“It’s not about pointing the finger at the coach or anyone else,” said Joshua Kimmich, who played a central role in Flick’s failed system experiment. The Bayern professional didn’t do too badly as a right-back who moved into the build-up game, but as a team nothing worked. There were also “individual errors,” as Flick complained. Above all from Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck, who was still allowed to stay on the pitch for a long time.

International malice

“At the end of the day we have to trust the coach that he makes the right decisions, that he knows what is right and good for the team,” said Kimmich. You “have to” trust him – conviction sounds different. “The Japanese are playing a good role and are currently definitely in the top 10 or top 15 in the world. And we don’t belong there at the moment,” said returnee Thomas Müller. At least in theory. “In practice it looks different.”

The international malice (“Disaster for Germany”, “Bizarre leadership style”, “Mega-crisis”) is hitting the DFB hard before the European Championship world event in its own country. On Sunday, the former members also made punitive judgments. “You can put all this possession football in the trash can. This is not the team that I imagine will make the turnaround,” said record national player Matthäus. Chancellor Olaf Scholz reported from New Delhi and stated in an interview on Welt TV that he was “sad” about the DFB selection.

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