Germany fire coach Hansi Flick

2023-09-10 19:25:00

Nine months before Euro 2024, the National Team has chosen to dismiss its coach, following a heavy 4-1 defeat against Japan.

By HR with AFP Hansi Flick sacked as Germany coach. © JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP Published on 09/10/2023 at 7:25 p.m.

Hansi Flick’s career as German coach will not have survived the humiliation suffered against Japan (4-1). The former Bayern Munich coach was dismissed from his position, nine months before Euro 2024 which Germany will play at home. The decision to dismiss him was taken by the German Federation this Sunday, September 10. The coach is coming off a bitter failure during the 2022 World Cup.

For the friendly match on Tuesday evening (9:00 p.m.) in Dortmund against France, it is the current sports director Rudi Völler, the U-20 coach Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner who will act as interim before the Federation chooses the successor to Flick for the European Championship (June 14-July 14).

Among the names of potential successors to Flick circulating in the media are Julian Nagelsmann, the former Bayern coach sidelined at the end of March, the Austrian Oliver Glasner, winner of the Europa League with Frankfurt in 2022, and Stefan Kuntz, double European champion in the past with the hopes (2017 and 2021).

Hansi Flick led his last training session late Sunday morning, open to the public, at the head of the Mannschaft in Wolsfburg. In contact with the 3,500 spectators, he was combative. “Yes, yes, I continue to fight,” he said, recognizing however that in professional football, it was difficult to predict anything.

A difficult budget

The DFB ultimately opted for the most radical solution, a novelty for it, while none of Flick’s ten predecessors as coach had been dismissed from their functions. Whether Berti Vogts (1998), Erich Ribbeck (2000) or Rudi Völler (2004), all had resigned after fiascos at the World Cup or the Euro.

Arriving in office in the summer of 2021 to succeed the long mandate of Joachim Löw (15 years) marked by the world title in 2014, Hansi Flick found himself under increasing pressure as the counterattacks -performances followed one another.

After his elimination in the first round at the 2022 World Cup, the German Federation decided to keep him in his position, while appointing Rudi Völler as sports director to supervise him.

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The sequence of friendly matches in March and June was catastrophic, with only one victory against modest Peru (2-0), a draw snatched at the last minute against Ukraine (3-3) and defeats against Belgium (3-2, the first on German soil since 1954), Poland (1-0) and Colombia (2-0).

But even after the humiliation against Japan (4-1) on Saturday evening in Wolfsburg, Flick claimed to be the man for the job. Völler, however, dodged the question of whether Flick would remain, postponing a night of reflection to take stock.