All sports fans who are only moderately interested in football only have to hold out for a few days and then they can take a deep breath. Then the discussion that ultimately determined everything will have died down before it picks up speed again with the German national soccer team’s international trip to the United States in mid-October.
“So is he the right one?” But under what condition will this question even be answered with approval? What if Germany’s most important football team plays better football again? That wouldn’t be a particularly high hurdle.
Nagelsmann has to deliver immediately
One thing can be predicted with certainty with the signing of Julian Nagelsmann: no national coach, not even Jürgen Klinsmann, has been under as much scrutiny as he has been, and there will be no shortage of comments of varying quality from all sides. And the 100-day rule that all new people are usually given to get used to will not play a role either. It’s best for Nagelsmann to deliver immediately, which probably won’t put a lot of strain on him. All coaches, whether in the national team or in the district league, know: the first impression is often decisive for the further path.
One can attest to the German Football Association (DFB) that it mustered up all its courage to make this commitment. Nagelsmann is neither easy nor comfortable, he wasn’t even available cheaply, but fortunately he was available at all. The model of in-house solutions for the most important position in the association was therefore not an option.
The relegation of the national team since winning the 2014 World Cup has been too damaging to business for the DFB, and the loss of importance has been too great. The DFB selection has long since ceased to be the last campfire at which the nation gathers, and they now even know this at the Frankfurt headquarters.
Of course there are legacy issues from his time at FC Bayern. However, it is a bold thesis to conclude from his failure there that Nagelsmann is not mature enough to handle the even greater task of the national team. Carlo Ancelotti once failed miserably at Bayern – he moved to an even bigger club, to even bigger stars and won the Champions League with Real Madrid. And has anything gotten better in Munich since Nagelsmann left?
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With Völler at his side, the polarizing new national coach perhaps has the right counterpart, unlike at FC Bayern in the collaboration with Hasan Salihamidzic. One or two personnel decisions will cause a stir, that’s for sure – but one or two tough decisions will also be necessary after years of maneuvering. It is said that success is where you make the biggest mistakes, and the period since 2014 is a perfect example of this. Seen this way, the starting conditions for Nagelsmann are pretty ideal.
