Julian Nagelsmann had a lot of praise for his assistant and representative. Dino Toppmöller, who led the FC Bayern team in place of the corona-positive head coach in the Champions League in Lisbon on Wednesday and will also be on the sidelines against Hoffenheim this Saturday, is “a very calm type of person” and has a “big heart “and” very good football expertise “. Toppmöller should now “like to be in the spotlight a little”. But before the game, Nagelsmann was there again himself.
Friday was a very special day in the roughly one and a half year history of pandemic-related video press conferences at FC Bayern. Since then, the head coach had always spoken in front of the camera from the venerable press room on Säbener Strasse and provided information about the personnel situation. This time Nagelsmann reported from the domestic isolation. With his shirt buttoned up to the collar, he sat at his desk in front of a white wall.
Nagelsmann has a small analysis center at home
He described building a “small analysis center” at home with a large screen, laptop and iPad. “It looks like a data center in the kitchen so I have a short walk to tea.” He spoke with a blocked nose, but felt “relatively jolly,” he explained. And that’s how he looked. “I even have perfume on it,” he said.
Nagelsmann, 34, has also answered the mandatory question about the injured situation, Leon Goretzka and Alphonso Davies are still out, otherwise there are currently no problems at Bayern. But this time the coach spoke at least as extensively about his own health. “I’m very optimistic that I’ll be back soon,” he said.
He described the chronology of the past few days as follows: Already on Sunday, when Bayern won 5-1 in Leverkusen, he felt symptoms of a cold and had himself tested with PCR and rapid tests – “voluntarily”, because Nagelsmann is twice vaccinated, like him Club had already announced on Thursday. The results of the tests on Sunday were negative, as were on Monday and Tuesday.
He described the symptoms that he felt as “not corona-typical” and “not corona-related”. Nevertheless, he stayed away from players and colleagues in the meetings, after all, he would not want to infect anyone with a cold. And when the test that was canceled on Wednesday turned out positive on Thursday morning after the game in Lisbon, he was “a bit shocked. I thought I had a flu.”
These descriptions could be significant for two reasons. Once, according to reports, there are still players in the record champions’ squad without vaccination protection, and all those involved are now being tested again for an infection with the corona virus. In addition, Nagelsmann’s possible return next Wednesday for the DFB Cup game against Borussia Mönchengladbach could also depend on the course of his infection. The Munich health department allows free testing from quarantine from the fifth day after infection only in the event that no symptoms have occurred.
First of all, his assistants are asked again anyway, Toppmöller, Xaver Zembrod and Benjamin Glück. “I trust my people that they will choose the right words,” said Nagelsmann. As in Lisbon, he wants to be in contact with them during the game and select the scenes for analysis at halftime. But he doesn’t want to give a video address.