DFB is currently making it easy for you. So the association called for the first press conference of the season at the construction site of the DFB campus in Frankfurt, and you had to be absolutely persistent not to accept and transform this steep paradigm.
After all, the association has been mainly occupied with demolition work in recent months: the German Football Association is currently without a president, the general secretary and media director have disappeared, all crushed by a month-long conspiracy. The footballer also showed how far the national team is currently from the best in the world.
It’s hard to imagine more construction sites.
All eyes are on the new national coach, who made his debut in front of the media on Tuesday. Although there is nothing around him on campus that looks like it will be possible to move any time soon, Hans-Dieter Flick has been under time pressure from the start. This is also evident for the 56-year-old: “We actually need time, but we don’t have much time,” that’s how he defines the dilemma of his assignment. Everyone expects a lot from him, the Champions League winner with Bayern Munich, and perfectly right away.
With arc wave to DFB
Flick arrived at DFB with a huge arc wave. Interim President Peter Peters and Director Oliver Bierhoff came up with the words “favorite candidate,” “deep joy,” and “first choice.” Flick, who knows the structures of the German Football Association well because he has worked here for years, and who at the same time celebrated the greatest successes at the highest level in club football in a short time – and above all, it is this combination that allows Flick to run openly in the German Football Association foot. It is clear that the association expects to be able to lead German football to the top. This is also the claim.
“The best footballers in Germany should also play for Germany,” Flick says, also indicating the way: Discussions about whether or not one of the other players is on the team will be postponed. The achievement is important, not whether the person is too old or too small, not the advantages they have received so far. This is a completely new tongue compared to its predecessor, Joachim Low.
Mario Gotze and Marco Reus addressed Flick by name, so they can both have legitimate hopes of returning to DFB-Elf. Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller must also continue to belong to the inner circle “if they bid at the club”.
Flick in white, coaching staff in black
Photo: Thomas Boecker / dpa
Assistants Danny Rolle and Andreas Kronenberg, who have been selected by Flick, have recently joined the inner circle of the German Football Association. One of them is known as a very talented tactical player at Bayern Flick from joint work, and the other as a long-time goalkeeper coach at Freiburg with advantages. As an apprentice, world champion Benedict Howedes should also be slowly introduced to higher tasks. With German-Danish standards specialist Mads Boetgret, he also has someone at his side who is supposed to be actively dealing with recent glaring weaknesses in free kicks and corners. “There’s definitely still a lot of room for improvement,” said Patgret as a polite person still conservative.
The tiger is also part of the party
And Flick wants to know another old friend in his environment: the good old Hermann Gerland, “Tiger”, who is no longer loved by Bayern Munich, is supposed to take on the duties of revealing Flick.
Thomas Schneider and Andreas Koepke, who have been part of Low’s coaching staff for years, are no longer part of it, and neither was much mentioned on Tuesday. The signal is clear: you want to look ahead, it has nothing to do with the undecorated past of the past few years. Peter Peters, a longtime member of the Executive Committee who in fact represents the past in the German Football Association, has spoken several times about “optimism”, about the fact that one now wants to “reach people again”: honoring a comeback. «
The DFB’s lost honor – Flick wants it back with an “all-in-all mentality”, as he called it: “Everyone should do everything they can to leave the pitch as a winner”. The 56-year-old did not generally do well but recovered well after his departure from Bayern, which was accompanied by dissatisfaction, as well as intense focus on the new assignment.
He couldn’t resist a simple pass while he was in Munich: When asked about the biggest differences between national coaches and coaches, Flick said with a slight smile: “As a national coach, you pick the players yourself, and that’s really an advantage.”
A small salute from Frankfurt on the transfer policy of Bavaria Sports Director Hasan Salihamidzic. From construction site to construction site.