Before the drastic measure, flick He had led a last open training session in front of the team before about 3,500 people. Despite his intentions to continue in office (“I will continue fighting,” he said), the coach could not resist the historic setback inflicted by the “Samurai” in a friendly.
flick He remained in charge of the four-time world champion team since August 1, 2021, a period in which he directed 25 games with a balance of 12 wins, 7 draws and 6 losses.
The cycle of the European champion coach with Bayern Munich, former assistant of Joachim Low In Brazil’s World Cup victory against Argentina, he was mortally wounded by Qatar’s early exit.
After the maximum competition in the Middle East, Germany They barely won a match (against Peru) and lost four of the other five friendlies played with a view to the Euro Cup that they will organize next year.
With only nine months to go before that tournament, the “Mannschaft” will have to look for a successor and, according to the local press, three surnames have the main chances: Julian Nagelsmann, former Bayern coach, the Austrian Oliver Glasner, Europa League champion with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, and Stefan Kuntz, successful former coach in the German Under 21.
For now, the Under 20 coach Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will be in charge of leading the team in the next friendly with France, scheduled for Tuesday in the city of Dortmund.
His path from hero to villain
Hero of the six titles in 2020 with Bayern, Hansi Flick failed to get his message across the German team and failed in his mission to succeed the iconic coach Joachim Löw and right the course of a Germany in free fall since 2018.
The humiliating defeat (4-1) against Japan in a friendly match on Saturday, the fourth in five matches, marked the point of no return for Germany, whose federation dismissed the Bavarian coach before Tuesday’s friendly match against world runners-up France.
An unusual decision in Germany, but hardly surprising, given that Flick did not have the support of the fans, while criticism against the coach intensified in the press.
“Hansi out!” could be heard in the stadium after the fourth Japanese goal, while Lothar Matthäus, the authoritative voice of German football, doubted whether the 58-year-old coach could be kept.
The failed step in the selection for Flick, Löw’s former, faithful and discreet deputy, was symbolized by the elimination in the first round of the Qatar World Cup last December, for the second consecutive time.
Upon his arrival in the European summer of 2021, he was therefore recognized for his good relationship with the players, maintaining a constant and edifying dialogue with them, a method that he strove to maintain at all times as a coach, after a short career as a player. . He even wore the jersey of Bayern, with whom he was a semi-finalist in the European Cup in 1990.
“He attaches great importance to communication (with the players) on and off the field of play,” said the captain of the German team, Manuel Neuer, in an autobiography of the coach, ‘Im Moment’ (‘For the moment’), appeared in September 2022.
Neuer has known Flick for more than a decade. He would meet him again at Bayern, as Niko Kovac’s assistant, at the beginning of a 2019-2020 season, which would transform his career.
In the European autumn of 2019, with Bayern struggling in the Bundesliga after a hard setback in Frankfurt (5-1), this coach who calls himself an admirer of Arrigo Sacchi or Arsène Wenger, was called to the rescue, named in the Kovac post.
He did not hesitate to dialogue, to involve all the players in his project, far from imposing his way of seeing football.
And the method worked: after some uninspiring starts (two defeats in the first six games), he chained successes and convinced the leaders to continue trusting him even though he was appointed on an interim basis.
It continues until the Christmas holidays, then until the end of the season, signing in April until June 2023.
Then, after the confinement in the second quarter of 2020, its months of greatest glory arrive; Bundesliga champion at the end of June, Cup winner at the beginning of July, Champions League winner at the end of August. He repeats Bayern’s historic treble in 2013 with Jupp Heynckes.
And to this he adds the other three possible titles, the German Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, for an unprecedented sextet.
Dialogue and calm, he also knows how to be intransigent, as in the spring of 2021, when he announced his intention to break his contract, after months of disagreements with Bayern sports director Hasan Salihamidzic, although he never publicly said that this was the reason for his departure. .
Appointed a few weeks later as Joachim Löw’s successor (2006-2021) at the head of the Mannschaft, Flick applies the same method with the players, most of whom he knows well after having coached them at Bayern Munich.
But the results were not the same.
Defeated by Belgium (3-2), Poland (1-0), Colombia (2-0) and now Japan, the Germans have only beaten Peru since the traumatic elimination in the World Cup.
The same Saturday, Hansi Flick looked strong enough to take the situation forward ahead of Euro 2024. But, in view of events, the German Federation did not share that opinion.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
