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Jürgen Klinsmann talks about his departure from Hertha BSC Berlin

SImmediately after the heavily criticized lightning resignation as Hertha coach, Jürgen Klinsmann himself spoke of a “questionable way”. Less than five months later, the former national coach sees the way he left the Berlin soccer Bundesliga club as a mistake. “I am very sorry how my departure from Hertha BSC came about after we had put six points between ourselves and the relegation place,” said the 55-year-old in an interview with the German Press Agency on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the World Cup -Triumphs of the national team in 1990. Klinsmann was one of the German world champions in Italy.

The club management and the former national coach were far apart when it came to ideas about his role in the up-and-coming capital club. In the training camp during the winter break, Klinsmann had signaled that he could imagine expanding his involvement with Hertha. “Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to reach a written agreement in ten weeks back then,” remarked Klinsmann. The former world-class striker first came to Hertha as a confidant of investor Lars Windhorst as a member of the supervisory board of the professional department and then took over the role of head coach from the hapless Ante Covic.

The world champion of 1990 and European champion of 1996, however, stepped down on February 11th after only eleven weeks as head coach, completely surprisingly. During the winter break, Hertha had invested almost 80 million euros in new signings – more than any other club in the world. Later, a catalog of hardships at Hertha outlined by Klinsmann came to the public. “I certainly made mistakes in the implementation of my departure and I would like to apologize again,” said the American by choice.

“The fact that an analysis that I created in my capacity as an adviser to the investor for internal use subsequently came to the public’s eyes was detrimental to everyone involved. It is still a mystery to me today how this got to the media, ”Klinsmann explained. In the internal analysis of his 77-day appearance in Berlin, which had been published in the “Sport-Bild”, the talk included “lying culture” in the club and “catastrophic omissions”, especially of manager Michael Preetz.

Hertha President Werner Gegenbauer spoke in a sharp reaction to “shabby accusations”. Manager Preetz described Klinsmann’s statements as “perfidious and unworthy”. Investor Windhorst refused to allow his confidant to return to the supervisory board. “Maybe you can do that as a teenager, but you shouldn’t do that in business where you have serious agreements,” commented the entrepreneur on Klinsmann’s departure. However, he left open “whether we can rely on him and his advice in a different form in a few months. I never slam doors. “

Klinsmann continues to monitor developments in the capital. “The most important thing is that Hertha has managed to stay in the class and remains in the Bundesliga,” emphasized Klinsmann, whose father was already a big Hertha fan.

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