Sports national team in crisis
World champion Klose asks the current generation the fundamental question
Status: 20.11.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
“A big pinch of disappointment” – 2:3 against Türkiye in Nagelsmann’s home premiere
National coach Julian Nagelsmann criticized the attitude of the national soccer team after the 2-3 defeat against Turkey on his home debut. “We didn’t have the emotionality in all positions,” said the DFB head coach. WELT reporter Dirk Schommertz recaps the international match.
The German national team cannot escape the crisis even under Julian Nagelsmann. Miroslav Klose is annoyed by this. The 2014 soccer world champion chooses clear words when he talks about his successors.
Record goalscorer Miroslav Klose sees the German national football players as having a duty on the way to the home European Championship. “The team has something to make up for with its fans,” Klose told “Kicker”. The disappointments at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and 2022 in Qatar were not due to a lack of quality in the team: “I hope that the players will remember that they embody the German national team, which has gone far in most tournaments in the past . You can’t just start putting in the effort in the round of 16 or quarter-finals.”
After the sobering 2:3 against Turkey in Berlin on Saturday, national coach Julian Nagelsmann cited the lack of emotionality of some national players as the reason for the first defeat of his term in office. Klose, who became world champion with the DFB team in 2014, said: “The basic questions for the last 10 or 15 percent are: How much is each player there for the other, how much does everyone put their ego aside? What a fire we had during training in Brazil! Then there was a bang.”
Reward for extremely hard work: Miroslav Klose hoisted the World Cup trophy into the Rio evening sky in the summer of 2014
Quelle: picture alliance / sampics / Sergey Dronyaev
The national team ends its international year on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./ZDF) with the game against Austria in Vienna. After that, Nagelsmann’s team has a break until the end of March. However, the EM groups will be drawn in Hamburg on December 2nd.
“Semi-finals and finals possible”
In order for the German selection to be successful at the first home tournament in 18 years, Klose believes they have to deliver the basics. “Beautiful football at times will not be enough, it has to be successful football at home,” said the former world-class striker: “Everyone has to pull together. Then the semi-finals and finals are possible.”
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In principle, Klose agreed with European champion Matthias Sammer, who sees German football in a deep crisis. “The team hasn’t performed in the most recent tournaments, so there must be deeper problems,” said Klose: “It starts with the youngsters, we have some catching up to do.” Whether the game reforms introduced by the German Football Association in the youth sector will bring about a turnaround, ” remains to be seen.”
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With a view to his former club FC Bayern, the former striker reported how impressed he was with Jamal Musiala. Klose trained the now 20-year-old as Munich’s U-17 coach from 2019 to 2020 – and is more than satisfied with the development of his former protégé.
“It is outstanding. Jamal accepted everything, wanted to implement everything straight away and was always very hard-working,” says Klose: “We still write to each other and make fun of his previous allergy to leather. He had some stick errors. And when you see today how he processes the balls at top speed with his right and left and how closely he moves the ball, it’s a pleasure to watch him.”
