National coach Hansi Flick was fired nine months before the home European Championships. The German Football Association (DFB) announced this one day after the 4-1 disgrace against Japan in Wolfsburg. On Tuesday (9:00 p.m. in the live ticker) sports director Rudi Völler, U20 coach Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will look after the national team once.
“It’s not an easy moment for me, because I joined the DFB in February to support Hansi Flick with everything I could to have his back free so that he can be successful in sport,” said Völler.
With the dismissal, the association achieved something new: none of Flick’s ten predecessors were thrown out. A successor for the home European Championships in nine months has not yet been determined.
The defeat against Japan was the third in a row. The last time that happened was 38 years ago. The four-time world champion has only won four of the last 17 international matches. After the World Cup debacle in Qatar, they only managed one win in six matches. Flick took office in August 2021 as Joachim Löw’s successor and set a starting record with eight wins.
Flick-Aus comes after DFB training in front of fans
Hansi Flick patiently posed for photos long after the public training session had ended. A hint of farewell wafted through the small Wolfsburg stadium on his lap of honor – and a few hours later he was certain. After the declaration of bankruptcy against Japan, the DFB announced its separation from the badly ailing national coach.
Since there was no sporting success, the DFB had to act nine months before the all-important home European Championship. “The committees agreed that the senior men’s national team needs new impetus after the recent disappointing results,” DFB President Bernd Neuendorf was quoted as saying in a statement. After the “most difficult decision of his time in office” he added: “We need a spirit of optimism and confidence with a view to the European Championship in our own country.”
By separating from Flick after 770 days, the association achieved something new: none of Flick’s ten predecessors had been fired. After the sporting revelation in the embarrassing 1:4 (1:2) against Japan, the bosses had no other choice. “Sporting success is the DFB’s top priority. That’s why the decision was unavoidable,” said Neuendorf. The association did not present a permanent solution. The aim, however, is to “regulate the succession as quickly as possible”.
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Julian Nagelsmann, Oliver Glasner and Stefan Kuntz are being traded and could perform the task for the first time on the controversial US tour in October. Record national player Lothar Matthäus demanded Matthias Sammer and himself turned down the job. But now another disaster against France needs to be prevented – with Völler, but without Flick.
The 58-year-old’s starting record of eight wins against second-class opponents didn’t help either. The former successful Munich coach was too damaged by the World Cup debacle in Qatar to bring about the hoped-for turnaround and the urgently needed change in mood. Even if he saw it differently immediately after the revealing performance against Japan. “I think we are doing well and I am the right coach,” said Flick in a remarkable self-assessment.
Joachim Löw’s former assistant coach was also combative during the public session in front of 2,376 fans on Sunday afternoon. “I’ll keep fighting,” he shouted to the supporters and tickled the stomach of a toddler in a mini jersey. But he had bad suspicions: “a lot of things are difficult to predict” in professional football.
So his worries quickly caught up with him again. The DFB officials around Neuendorf, his deputy Hans-Joachim Watzke and Völler put their heads together at a crisis meeting in the afternoon.
The national team’s series of bankruptcies under Flick
The statistics were too alarming. The last time the national team suffered three defeats in a row was 38 years ago under Franz Beckenbauer. Only four of the last 17 games were won. Since the World Cup disaster there has only been one win in six matches.
At the start of the European Championship season, Flick tried to fire his last cartridge due to the tactical and personnel changes, but it got stuck in the barrel. Offensively unimaginative, defensively helpless – only thanks to goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was the worst home defeat since 2001 (1:5 against England under team boss Völler) not even more dramatic.
Flick’s changes, the new captain Ilkay Gündogan, the demotion of Joshua Kimmich to the right side of defense – the national coach wanted to send a sign of life with this. Look, I fight, I’m modern. We now have a game philosophy! It went absolutely horribly wrong. This also included the idea of sending the completely overwhelmed Nico Schlotterbeck at the back left into a hopeless battle against much faster and more agile Japanese.
The fans in the Volkswagen Arena whistled loudly and called for the national coach to be sacked. The players still stood behind their boss. “We are not good enough right now. The team has to question itself,” said Gündogan.
Thomas Müller told the football nation what was overdue. Germany is only “among the best 10 or 15 in the world” in its self-perception, perhaps in theory, “but not in reality”.
Now Flick’s successor should take care of it.