At the moment, as can be seen after the German national team’s game in France, the door is open for a coach without German citizenship. This has never happened before in the history of the DFB. But the need is great. A replacement for Hansi Flick must be found by October 9th, then the plane will take off for the international trip to America. The game against the USA (October 14th) and the duel against Mexico in Philadelphia (October 18th) are coming up – and Rudi Völler just wants to be a sports director and no longer a coach.
“We are not ruling out any option at the moment. Whether German coach or foreign coach. We’re not slamming any doors,” DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said shortly before the game against the French. “We need a person,” he posited, “who is assertive and who is resilient.”
That made people sit up and take notice, at least it means the ball is also in play for Louis van Gaal, without a doubt. The Dutch star coach wanted to retire, he said so before the World Cup in Qatar. He was unfortunately eliminated with the Dutch in the quarter-finals against eventual world champions Argentina after a dramatic game and penalty shootout. But van Gaal has often said he wanted to quit – and then he was suddenly present on some football stage again, whether with a club or the Dutch national team, which he managed three times in his career.
Lots of hearts go out to Louis van Gaal in Germany
The 72-year-old flirted with a look at the German national team in BILD on Sunday. Flick had just been released and van Gaal said: “I don’t normally train at a club anymore, but a promising country still has a chance to convince me.”
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He doesn’t have to do that anymore, his merits are too respectable. Although he left Bayern early in 2011 amid strife, he had won many hearts in Germany the previous summer, in addition to winning the championship, winning the cup and reaching the final of the Champions League. He also trained the then youth player Thomas Müller (“Müller is always playing”) into a professional and national player. Bayern’s former captain Philipp Lahm later said when Munich won the treble in 2013 that the success was based on van Gaal’s game idea.
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Lahm, the DFB’s chief organizer of next year’s European Championships in Germany, is now one of the old master’s advocates. He told BILD with regard to the new national coaching position: “As a coach on the pitch, Louis van Gaal stands for discipline, order and structure in the way his teams play. He always conveys this through a very clear speech. At FC Bayern he was the right man who shaped the club at the right time with his game idea. He is a strong personality with a lot of experience, which he has gained in top international football as a club and national coach.”
On Tuesday evening, when it was once again made clear that interim coach Völler was not thinking of remaining as national coach despite the 2-1 win against France, Bastian Schweinsteiger joined the supporters. Like Lahm, a former pupil of van Gaal at Bayern, he told ARD as an expert that it was his “wish, or rather what would be best for the team, is Louis van Gaal”.
Probably a cheap solution compared to Flick
He has already “won big battles,” Schweinsteiger outlined, “let’s remember the World Cup in Qatar and how far he brought the Dutch there. The team needs a personality who has big shoulders. This is extremely important. If you’re not playing so well, you can’t easily get past it. He also says a few words.”
A world coach: Louis van Gaal earned the nickname “Tulip General” during his time at FC Bayern due to his authoritarian demeanor
Quelle: picture alliance/empics/Martin Rickett
Van Gaal is also likely to be a solution for the cash-strapped DFB, which is struggling against an immense financial deficit, which could probably be managed relatively easily. According to a report from “Finance Football”, he is said to have only earned around 2.9 million euros as a bond coach – Hansi Flick, on the other hand, is said to have received a salary of around 6.5 million euros, according to the report.
Van Gaal is likely to have a far lower impact than Julian Nagelsmann, for example. According to information from BILD, the Munich team would not demand a transfer fee from the DFB for the 36-year-old, who is still under contract with FC Bayern. In addition to salary expectations, the association would also have to agree with Nagelsmann on how he intends to deal with his former club. One thing is clear: Bayern Munich has no intention of sweetening his eventual departure from the DFB with a compensation payment, as is quite common in such cases when his contract is terminated prematurely.
“The catch is the salary – we all know the DFB is a bit cash-strapped”
Ex-Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann is just 36 years old. Former national player Jimmy Hartwig still knows good reasons why Julian Nagelsmann could be an option. In the WELT interview he analyzes the current developments.
DFB sports director Völler, who has to complete the coaching search alongside association president Neuendorf and DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke, also made people sit up and take notice after Tuesday evening’s win against France. When asked whether the new national coach had to be German and what he thought of van Gaal, Völler replied: “It is important that it is a German-speaking national coach. And of course also a top man. Everyone who has been named and hasn’t declined yet are all top trainers.”
As a reminder: van Gaal speaks German well. Potential thought games of installing just one project trainer to ensure that the home European Championships are as successful as possible and then relying on another, permanent solution are also more conceivable with van Gaal than with Nagelsmann.
Even van Gaal’s health is no longer a cause for concern. In April of last year he made it public that he was being treated for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. At the World Cup in Qatar, nothing could be felt or seen. He appeared as vital as ever and is considered healed. When he was awarded the “Eredivisie Oeuvre Award” last week for his services to Dutch football, he gave further insight into how things are going for him. “I had surgery three weeks ago to repair everything. So that I can get my water management back under control,” he said: “I have to come back on September 19th. Then everything is activated. And then the miracle could happen that I can go to the toilet on my own again.”
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