German national team
DFB fires national coach Hansi Flick – Völler should sit on the bench against France
Hansi Flick failed in his work as a national soccer coach. The DFB now also had to realize this.
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The DFB fired national coach Hansi Flick after the defeat against Japan. Rudi Völler and DFB sports director Hannes Wolf are expected to sit on the bench in Tuesday’s friendly against France.
Hansi Flick is no longer national coach. The German Football Association separated from the 58-year-old on Sunday, and the association drew the consequences after the 4-1 draw against Japan in Wolfsburg on Saturday. At the next international match against France on Tuesday (9 p.m./ARD), sports director Rudi Völler, Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will oversee the selection on an interim basis.
“The committees agreed that the senior men’s national team needs new impetus after the recent disappointing results,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. He described Flick’s expulsion as “inevitable”. Nine months before the home European Championships in 2024, the association has to look for a new coach in one of the deepest sporting crises in its history. At the end of 2022, the DFB selection failed in the preliminary round of the World Cup – even after a defeat against Japan.
Julian Nagelsmann is the first candidate for successor
Several candidates were recently named as possible successors, above all the former Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann (36), the Austrian Oliver Glasner (49) and also Völler (63), who was installed after the World Cup was eliminated, and Matthias Sammer ( 56). The supposed 1A solution Jürgen Klopp (56) is tied to Liverpool FC.
Flick took over the national team from Joachim Löw after the 2021 European Championship and won the first eight games, albeit against second-class opponents at best. In Qatar, the DFB selection deserved to be thrown out after the games against Japan (1:2), Spain (1:1) and Costa Rica (4:2), Flick was unable to turn the mood around in the last few months.
Flick’s measures went wrong
The 4-1 defeat in Wolfsburg was the third defeat in a row; the national team had last played so unsuccessfully almost 40 years ago. Flick had changed his team again, contrary to his announcement that he wanted to find his “core team” for the home tournament. A new tactic with Joshua Kimmich as a central right-back in the build-up to the game went completely wrong. Flick suffered his heaviest defeat in his 25th international match.
He was still allowed to lead the public training session on Sunday morning. A few hours later it was over.