The German Football Association may be breaking new ground when it comes to filling the post of managing director. Former national player Nadine Kessler is a candidate for the association to succeed Oliver Bierhoff, who has resigned. The DFB confirmed a corresponding report by the Munich evening newspaper on Thursday evening. “We’re talking to her, but we’re not about to sign a contract,” said the DFB: “We’re also talking to other candidates.” There is still a way to go.
According to the report, Kessler could be responsible for the academy and national teams in the future. The current U20 selection coach Hannes Wolf is said to be under discussion as the new technical director, the Frankfurter Rundschau had previously reported.
Former European champion Kessler, 35, currently works as a department head at the European Football Union (Uefa). She would be the first woman to be responsible for both the women’s team headed by national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg and the men’s senior national team headed by national coach Hansi Flick. The world footballer of 2014 was one of the best midfielders in the world during her active career. With VfL Wolfsburg she won the Champions League twice, the championship title twice and the DFB Cup three times. In 2016 she ended her career due to persistent knee problems and from then on devoted herself to her career as an official.
Kessler and Wolf would inherit Bierhoff
There is also speculation about Wolf, 42. According to media reports, the association is said to be planning to promote the coach of the U20 national team to technical director. He should also head a competence team that includes the former Bundesliga professionals Hanno Balitsch and Sandro Wagner.
Oliver Bierhoff resigned after the fiasco at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, where the men’s national team failed for the second time in a row in the World Cup preliminary round. As DFB director, Bierhoff was responsible for an enormously large area.
At the beginning of the year, the DFB signed Rudi Völler as the new sporting director for the senior national team and the U21s. The former DFB team boss will give up this role again after the EM 2024. The 2014 world champion Sami Khedira had recently been discussed as a candidate for a DFB post, but negotiations with the 36-year-old failed.
