Hansi Flick, the German coach, was sacked on Sunday, two days before the match against France. An inevitable outcome after poor results, which reflects the crisis that German football is going through, nine months before the Euro that the country will host.
When opting for a friendly match against Germany, Didier Deschamps certainly did not expect to meet a former thirty-year-old traveling companion. On the Mannschaft bench, Tuesday September 12 in Dortmund, will be Rudi Völler, former teammate of the French coach when Olympique de Marseille won the Champions League in 1993.
The former German football legend (63 years old) is surely the first to be surprised by his presence on Tuesday as Germany’s interim coach. “We had imagined the situation completely differently”Völler admitted on Monday, during a press conference where there was more talk about the many shortcomings that German football is currently experiencing than the upcoming friendly match against the Blues.
If Völler will occupy for this meeting a position that he already knew between 2000 and 2004, it is because the German Football Federation (DFB) sacked Hansi Flick on Sunday, the day after a heavy defeat against Japan (1 -4). All nine months before Euro 2024 for which Germany is automatically qualified as host country. “This is the consequence of one of the biggest crises in the history of German football, if not the biggest.”underlines Yannick Hüber, journalist for the daily Bildequivalent of The Team local.
“It was not possible to continue in this situation”
On Monday, Rudi Völler regularly insisted on the inevitability of Flick’s dismissal: “The results were not there. It was not possible to continue in this situation.” Flick had already come close to being ousted after the elimination in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar. Eager to blow a fuse, the leaders of the DFB had then dismissed Oliver Bierhoff, the sporting director, replaced by… Völler.
But since the World Cup, Germany’s performances have been even more catastrophic: the Mannschaft has only won one match in 2023, against Poland in March (2-0), and has just had five matches without victory, including four defeats. “Flick lacked a common thread, didn’t really know what to do with this team and made strong choices that he couldn’t explain.”details Sophie Serbini, journalist for German radio Deutsche Welle.
Ilkay Gündogan, not selected last March to open the door to new young players, was named captain by Flick at the start of this September gathering. A function previously fulfilled by Joshua Kimmich, demoted to the rank of vice-captain. Other executives (Antonio Rüdiger, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané…) were in turn pushed aside and then reinstated.
A lack of interest from the German public in the selection
The problem is not limited to Flick, however, according to Sophie Serbini: “There are personalities within the squad who do not go together, with different generations. And then within the DFB, we feel that there is a desire to reform, but there is total vagueness. We have no idea who is doing what.” The DFB – the federation which has the most licensees in the world (7 million) – has been concerned in recent months about the performance of the selection and the German training of young talents at half mast.
“Task forces” were thus created within it to try to halt the fall of German football. But the leaders of the DFB are shooting at each other, like the recent skirmish between Hans-Joachim Watzke, member of one of the “task forces” and boss of Borussia Dortmund, and Hannes Wolf, in charge of the temporary resumption of the first team alongside Rudi Völler.
“Interest in the selection is really at an all-time low right now because of all this.”, underlines Yannick Hüber. The journalist from Bild thus insists on the fact that “people don’t identify with the new generation players, while Bastian Schweinsteiger or Lukas Podolski were popstars during the 2006 World Cup in Germany“. During the last matches played at home in recent months, the Mannschaft rarely filled its stadiums, a sign of the disenchantment between the German public and the selection.
The DFB is urgently looking for a coach
The announcement of the dismissal of Hansi Flick in the middle of the final of the Basketball World Cup, which Germany won, added to the incomprehension. “They shouldn’t have done that“, reproaches Joachim, taxi driver in Dortmund. “The Federation is not on the same wavelength as the supporters. For two years, there was no training open to the public. And now that the situation is bad, they decide to do it“, regrets Joachim, who assures that for “To win back the hearts of supporters, there is only one thing that matters: winning matches.“
For Germany, the priority is currently elsewhere: finding an emergency coach while the next match will take place in the United States in just a month and the Euro is fast approaching. “What is important is that the new coach brings renewed optimism“, said Völler, who insisted that his interim would not go beyond the match against the Blues.
Aware that the Mannschaft will have difficulty winning their Euro in nine months, the DFB hopes to at least revive public interest in the selection before considering more in-depth reforms. “Many people don’t even know that there will be a Euro here next summer.”, assures Yannick Hüber. The German players hope to remember this on Tuesday evening, by beating a French team that is the big favorite of this poster.