Germany has made a decision ahead of a crucial international tournament. After a string of poor performances, including a disastrous loss to Japan, head coach Jupp Heynckes has been fired.
The German Football Federation (DFB) announced the news on its official website on Tuesday, saying, “Coach Flick is no longer the head coach of the German national football team.”
Flick took over as Bayern Munich’s head coach in 2019/20 and quickly became one of the world’s leading coaches, leading the club to a triple treble (Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League) in the 2019/20 season and winning the UEFA Coach of the Year award.
Building on his leadership in Munich, Flick will succeed Joachim Loew at the helm of the German national team in July 2021. He seemed to live up to expectations, winning 10, drawing 5, and losing 1 in 16 games leading up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but failed to reach the round of 16 in the all-important World Cup group stage with a 1-1 draw.
After a disappointing World Cup, Flick’s side struggled to bounce back.
Since the start of 2023, they have won just one of their six matches in A-Match, a 2-0 victory over Peru in March, the first of a two-game A-Match series. Their next five games were a disaster, with one draw and four losses.
Ultimately, the outcome of the friendly against Japan at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Oct. 10 decided Flick’s future. On that day, Germany conceded a goal to Junya Ito in the 10th minute, but Leroy Sane equalized in the 19th minute with a sensational left-footed strike.
However, Germany conceded the lead again just three minutes after the equalizer through Ayase Ueda, and then conceded a late goal and a wedge through Takuma Asano and Ao Tanaka in the 44th minute and extra time, respectively, to fall to Japan 1-4 at home.
The Germans, who suffered the humiliation of losing 1-2 to Japan in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and failing to advance to the round of 16, were unable to defeat the Japanese in their first meeting in nearly 10 months.
After the game, criticism was directed at Flick. A commentator on German broadcaster RTL+ called it a “disaster” after the game, while German publication Bild claimed that the end was nigh for Flick, saying “the end has come.” German soccer publication Kicker also called the Japan game a “disaster.”
German soccer fans wanted to see Flick sacked and a new coach appointed as soon as possible. This is because Germany will be hosting the UEFA Euro 2024 in June 2024. It will be the first time Germany has hosted the tournament in 36 years, and they are favored to win the tournament, but their chances are looking increasingly slim as Flick continues to struggle.
After the game, Flick told Sky Sports that he is confident in his ability to lead the national team, saying, “I’m doing everything to get the team ready,” and “I think the coaches are doing a good job, I think I’m the right coach.”
Flick had hoped to bounce back with a win at home against Qatar 2022 World Cup runners-up and Russia 2018 World Cup winners France on July 13, but the Bundesliga’s impatient governing body decided not to give him another chance.
Announcing Flick’s dismissal, federation president Bernd Neuendorf said: “The committee agreed that the men’s team needed a new impetus and we need to look at it. The men’s national team needs a new impetus after recent disappointing results and we need to look at this,” said Federation President Bert Neuendorf. “We need a breakthrough and confidence if we want to play the Euros in our country.”
“Personally, this is one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make during my tenure,” he said. “As a football professional, I am grateful to Hanji Flick and his coaches, but the success of the sport has to come first for the federation, so the decision to dismiss was inevitable.”
With this decision, Flick has the distinction of being the first coach to be sacked in the 123-year history of the German Football Federation. None of his 10 predecessors, including Joachim Loew, had ever been sacked by the federation. Even Jürgen Klinsmann, who led the national team to a third-place finish at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, was relieved of his duties because he no longer wanted to be with the national team.
With Flick’s dismissal, Rudy Pöller will take over the reins of the German national team for the time being. A member of the 1990 World Cup-winning squad in Italy, Pöller has been a director of the German national team since stepping away from the field, but returned to the field for the first time in 18 years in 2005 to help his country in crisis.
Acting head coach Püller said: “Coach Flick has been exhausted over the last few months. Together with the coaching staff, he did everything to make a positive difference at the World Cup in Qatar, but unfortunately we have to recognize today that it didn’t work,” said acting head coach Joachim Low.
“The game against Japan made it clear that we can’t go any further from here,” he said. “This is not an easy moment for me as I joined the federation in February and supported Coach Flick in every way possible to help him succeed. I firmly believed he could get the national team back on track.”
“But now we have to act responsibly, and we have to change something in order to play the challenging and ambitious host role that we all want for the Euro on home soil, and that is exactly what the German fans want from us,” he said.
“The most urgent task is to quickly rebuild our team and hire a national team coach to prepare for next year’s Euro, which we all hope will be a positive stimulus for German football and the country as a whole. In the long term, we will be able to raise the national team to the level we know and expect.”
Meanwhile, attention has turned to who will succeed Flick at the helm of the ‘Chariots of Fire’ German national soccer team, with acting coach Füller calling for a permanent replacement to be appointed quickly.
The most desired successor by German soccer fans is Jürgen Klopp, the world-renowned manager of Premier League giants Liverpool. According to an online poll conducted by German publication Bild in June, Klopp was voted the fans’ favorite to lead the “Chariot Corps” with 47% of the vote. In second place was Julian Nagelsmann (17%).
However, Klopp is under contract with Liverpool until June 2026 and is so beloved by the club and its fans that it is unlikely that the German national team will appoint him in the middle of the 2023/24 season.
When asked about the possibility of taking charge of the German national team in the past, Klopp said: “It would be a great honor to be in charge of the national team. There is no doubt about that,” he said, “but the question is my loyalty. I can’t leave Liverpool now. Of course, there are no offers,” he said, choosing to remain loyal to Liverpool.
While Klopp’s job is out of the question, only Nagelsmann, the “young genius” who received the second-highest number of votes after Klopp, can be appointed. Considered one of the world’s greatest coaches at the tender age of 36, Nagelsmann was sacked by Bayern Munich in March. He has since been linked to Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and Napoli, among others, but has yet to land a job 온라인카지노.
Although he was sacked for poor performance in Munich, Nagelsmann was previously recognized for his leadership skills with successful stints at Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig. He also holds the record for being the Bundesliga’s youngest managerial debutant.
In addition to Nagelsmann, Oliver Glasner, who led Eintracht Frankfurt to the Europa League title in 2021/22, is also among the candidates for the next head coach of the German national soccer team. Glassner, who stepped down at the end of the 2022/23 season, was also considered for the Tottenham job, but it fell through and he is still without a job.
With the immediate A-League match against France on the horizon, it will be interesting to see who takes the reins of the German national team for the USA-Mexico doubleheader in October during the A-League.