Germany goalscorer Thomas Müller: “Small emotional release”

In the friendly against World Cup finalists France, the DFB team celebrated a liberating 2-1 win in Dortmund on Tuesday, one day after national coach Flick was fired. Now the big T question needs to be clarified at the German Football Association: Who will train the DFB team at the important tournament in front of their home crowd?

According to his own statement, it will not be Völler; the 63-year-old is returning to his position as DFB sports director. In any case, when asked whether he would like it even better in the stands at the next international match, he replied: “Yes! Yes! It doesn’t change anything, the result. For me that’s very clear.” And Völler explained the personal reasons for this: “It was very tiring. I’ll be honest, it was a stressful few days,” he said, referring to the truly turbulent hours with Flick’s release and rapid preparation for the French.

“It’s not just about one game, that’s no problem, I’ll manage it,” said Völler, almost trying to understand: “The whole package was very strenuous.” The vote of the over 60,000 happy spectators in the stands would probably have been quite clear on Tuesday evening if they were allowed to decide on the coach who should lead the DFB team to the home European Championship.

“It just feels good”

Actively supported by young sports director and U20 selection coach Hannes Wolf as well as ex-national player Sandro Wagner, Völler managed to break the negative trend in his own way.

Thomas Müller, who was able to celebrate his 34th birthday after the game as the scorer of the early and groundbreaking 1-0, spoke of “a small emotional release” after five games without a win, three defeats in a row, a lot of frustration and self-doubt. “We were already carrying a heavy load around with us.”

“It just feels good,” said Völler happily when victory became a reality after Leroy Sané’s late goals to make it 2-0 and Antoine Griezmann’s penalty goal. France’s top scorer Kylian Mbappé did not play due to minor knee problems. “You don’t take any risks in a game like this,” said national coach Didier Deschamps.

What’s next in Germany?

Völler wants to stick to the plan to find a successor to Flick together with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Joachim Watzke. “My wish would be if we could introduce the new national coach by the next international match period. That would of course be the ideal case,” said Völler. On October 9th, the German national team will travel to the US east coast for two games against the USA and Mexico, and on November 21st the duel with the ÖFB team in Vienna is on the agenda.

Völler still did not want to comment on the candidates traded around the supposed favorite Julian Nagelsmann to succeed Flick. However, he named one criterion when asked whether a foreigner like Louis van Gaal could also become a national coach. “It’s important that it’s a German-speaking national coach. And of course it has to be a top man. That’s the most important coaching job in our country.” Oliver Glasner had also already been brought into play as a candidate.