No sooner had Julian Nagelsmann surprisingly received the dismissal from FC Bayern Munich for many in the football industry, no sooner had Thomas Tuchel been announced as the successor to the post of head coach than Nagelsmann’s girlfriend Lena Wurzenberger started her job at the Picture-Newspaper in Munich terminated. When asked by dpa, Axel Springer Verlag confirmed that she would stop at the end of March at her own request. “We have complied with this and wish her every success in the future,” was the statement from Berlin.
Nagelsmann’s relationship with the former sports reporter made headlines after it became known in June last year. That the head coach of one of the richest and most successful football clubs in the world, which was previously nicknamed “FC Hollywood” due to internal turbulence and power struggles, is in a relationship with a tabloid journalist who reported full-time on this club as a sports reporter – man does not have to be a media scientist to recognize a problematic constellation in this.
Internals from the Bayern cabin are a more than coveted commodity on the news market. In public, the up-and-coming coach was never accused of indiscretion – but such a situation is at least associated with the title “unfortunate”. It is also considered a possible factor in the alienation between club management, players and the young charismatic coach.
After “Bild” made the relationship known, she was a police reporter
The relationship became known when Lena Wurzenberger, 30, informed her employer in June 2022. The Picture then reported about the relationship himself (“Julian Nagelsmann loves Picture-Reporter” was the headline on the website), also about the fact that Nagelsmann had separated from his wife. Neither Wurzenberger nor Nagelsmann had made any statements until then. Nagelsmann had seen no problems for his job when the relationship became known. Lena Wurzenberger but was released from reporting on FC Bayern with immediate effect and from then on in the Munich Picture-Local editorial team employed as a police reporter. “This procedure and the examination of possible conflicts of interest are in line with the guidelines for journalistic independence at Axel Springer,” a spokesman for the publisher said at the time when asked by the SZ.
However, Lena Wurzenberger was still reserved for exclusive insights into the inner workings of FC Bayern. At least when, for example, at the traditional Oktoberfest visit by the club management and team, next to her partner at the boss table with CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidžić, she witnessed the naturally not exactly exuberant mood after the 1-0 defeat against FC Augsburg despite the beer tent atmosphere . But the fact that Kahn was “naturally dissatisfied and in a bad mood” after such a game – nobody needs to sit next to him to notice that, even the reporters who were officially admitted to the tent understood that, because he personally dictated it to them in the blocks.
The other side of the supposedly dazzling coin, being able to be there with the big ones – Lena Wurzenberger was often the subject of the reports herself: that too Picture did not hesitate to report spectacularly about his own employee. Like last December, for example. Da headlined Bild.de to a photo from “1414 Reader Reporter” that showed Lena Wurzenberger and Julian Nagelsmann: “With his Lena – Nagelsmann on a love vacation in New York”. In the future, she will no longer have to complain about this kind of indiscretion through the official channels.