National team
19 years after retirement: Völler’s team boss comeback
Rudi Völler is stepping in as interim manager of the national soccer team. photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
From 2000 to 2004, Rudi Völler was team manager of the national soccer team. It was an eventful time with the World Cup final, angry speeches and an abrupt end. There’s now an encore against France.
After 19 years, Rudi Völler steps in once again as interim team boss of the national soccer team.
After the separation from national coach Hansi Flick, the 63-year-old DFB sports director will look after the team against World Cup runners-up France on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./ARD) in Dortmund, supported by U20 selection coach Hannes Wolf and ex-national player Sandro Wagner – “unique “, as the association announced. The German Football Association wants to settle Flick’s permanent successor “as quickly as possible”.
Clear message to the team
Völler only has the final training in the evening at Signal Iduna Park to realign the team after the 4-1 loss to Japan. Already after what he called an “embarrassment” in Flick’s last international match on Saturday evening in Wolfsburg, he had clearly identified the many shortcomings in the style of a coach and given his route.
There was also a clear message to the team, which had been without a win for five test matches and was very unsettled. “We have a game against the best team in Europe at the moment. That will of course be difficult,” said Völler, but added clearly: “But nobody can have their pants full. We have to try to win back credit.”
Völler was in charge of the national team as team manager from 2000 until his abrupt resignation in 2004 in 53 international matches. His record includes 30 wins, ten draws and 13 defeats. A look back in highlights:
2000: Shortly after the European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands, in which the national team under Erich Ribbeck, as defending champions, was eliminated in the preliminary round as bottom of the group, Völler was appointed team boss. The former world-class striker and 1990 world champion was actually only supposed to be Christoph Daum’s placeholder for one year. He was supposed to take over as national coach at Bayer 04 Leverkusen after the end of his contract. The plan collapsed when Daum was no longer considered due to proven drug use.
2002: As the now permanent DFB team boss, Völler unexpectedly led the national team to the final of the World Cup tournament in Japan and South Korea, which was lost 2-0 to Brazil. Despite the defeat, it was a huge success and the fans celebrated Völler.
2003: The team boss made headlines when he talked himself into a rage in a studio interview with ARD reporter Waldemar Hartmann after a disappointing 0-0 draw in Reykjavík against hosts Iceland. Moderator Gerhard Delling and expert Günter Netzer had previously spoken of a “low point” and criticized the poor performance, which Völler had watched live in the stadium and which prompted him to give his legendary angry speech.
2004: After Völler and the national team were eliminated in the preliminary round of the 2004 European Championship, he was thrown out the night after the 1-2 defeat against the Czech Republic in Lisbon. With the burden of this disappointment, he no longer considered himself the right coach to lead the national team to the home World Cup in 2006. That’s what Jürgen Klinsmann did.