Football Türkiye
Stefan Kuntz fired over the phone
Status: 17.09.2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Stefan Kuntz is no longer Türkiye’s national coach
What: REUTERS
Stefan Kuntz is no longer Türkiye’s national coach. A friendly match against Japan was also his downfall. “He shot himself in the knee,” said the association boss. That could have an effect on the national coach search.
Turkey is parting ways with national coach Stefan Kuntz. He was informed about this by telephone. This is reported by the Turkish news agency “DHA”. This agrees with WELT information. The 60-year-old took over the national team in 2021 and his contract was valid until 2024.
Kuntz achieved twelve wins from 20 games, but was repeatedly criticized, also because of the missed World Cup qualification last year. Most recently there was a meager 1:1 against Armenia in the European Championship qualification and a 2:4 in a friendly against Japan, which cost two German coaches their jobs.
The Asians had previously won 4-1 against Germany. The day after, national coach Hansi Flick was relieved of his duties. There is no permanent successor yet. Kuntz could definitely be a candidate due to his many years of work with the DFB youth team – he became European champion twice with the U21s. The 1996 European champion had already been named as the successor candidate for long-term national coach Löw. Former Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann is also considered a possible successor to Flick.
Criticism and Kuntz’ criticism
After the Japan game, Kuntz publicly criticized the attitudes of some players, which did not go down well with the association president. Mehmet Büyükeksi told daily Milliyet: “We will carefully examine the situation of the national team and its coach. We have nothing to lose at the moment. I recommend moderation, patience and calmness to everyone. Unfortunately, our coach shot himself in the foot with his comments after the game. This is a very unfortunate situation.” He would rather have wished that Kuntz had expressed his criticism internally.
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Kuntz said, among other things: “My players have to bring themselves to the required level in order to give 100 percent in the national jersey. What hurts me the most is when the players aren’t willing to give 100 percent.”
In the European Championship qualification, Turkey is still well in the race with ten points from five games in second place in Group D behind Croatia. But a victory over Armenia would have been a big step towards the tournament in Germany. This one was missed.
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