National team
Ballack: DFB-Elf has room for improvement when it comes to leading players
Michael Ballack was DFB captain from 2004 to 2010. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
Michael Ballack hopes that even more leading players will develop in the DFB team with a view to the home European Championship next year. He clearly criticizes two former national coaches.
The 47-year-old added: “I think we still have room for improvement.” He would be happy if “a few more players emerge who have that even more.”
That’s why the new national coach Julian Nagelsmann also brought back Thomas Müller and Mats Hummel. “Because of course they have this experience, this leadership, perhaps also the empathy and this approach to the players, which Julian Nagelsmann noticed, I need that. The boys are exactly the ones to raise the others to this level,” he said Former midfielder who was DFB captain from 2004 to 2010.
Meanwhile, the three-time German Footballer of the Year lacks the necessary self-reflection among today’s coaches, in particular the former national coaches Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick. “Back then there was also a certain kind of self-reflection. If the goal wasn’t achieved, you clear the way for a new one, especially in a football nation like Germany,” said the 47-year-old. In the past, a change in coaching position after missing goals was normal.
Ballack: There was no chemistry with Flick
The fact that things were no longer right between Flick (58), who was fired in September, and the DFB team also became clear in the four-part documentary “All or Nothing” on Amazon Prime about Germany’s elimination from the preliminary round of the World Cup at the beginning of September. Then we saw that it no longer worked. “That’s why it wasn’t surprising to me that we weren’t successful. Because the chemistry and the energy weren’t right,” said Ballack.
Flick’s predecessor Löw (63) attested to Ballack’s lack of communication with players – especially those he no longer wanted in the squad. “That was certainly one of his weaknesses. But he couldn’t do that, so he mostly let things run their course and left it to the media, who of course were happy to pick up on the game,” said Ballack. All “big players” would understand a clear message. Löw took over the captaincy from Ballack in 2010 after his absence from the World Cup due to injury and passed it on to Philipp Lahm. Löw later no longer called Ballack into the DFB team. To date there has been no clarifying conversation. “It was of course bitter back then, but it’s no longer an issue today,” said Ballack.