Hansi Flick has been sacked as Germany coach and with a home European Championship on the horizon next summer, the squad needs a coach who can come in and turn this team around to make sure they do not get embarrassed next summer. With such short notice, who is the person to take charge?
Bild earlier compiled a list of managers who could replace Flick. The list included: Oliver Glasner, Miroslav Klose, Rudi Völler, Jürgen Klopp, Matthias Sammer, Jürgen Klinsmann, Louis van Gaal, Lother Matthäus, Julian Nagelsmann and Zinedine Zidane.
Klopp can already be ruled out as it is unlikely that he will leave Liverpool having only signed a contract extension at the club last summer until 2026. Zidane will cost a high fee, and the language barrier could become an issue.
Julian Nagelsmann
In some people’s eyes the front runner for the job. Nagelsmann has been without a job since March after being sacked as Bayern Munich coach. There are two hurdles that are likely to stop Nagelsmann from being hired as the Flick replacement.
The first is the price tag, Bayern will likely demand €10m-15m for Nagelsmann as they are still paying their former boss after his dismissal in the spring. The DFB does not have this type of money so the price tag itself will likely put an end to this rumour, similar to Zidane. The second is that Nagelsmann is a training ground manager, he requires a lot of time with his team to get across his ideas and how he wants the team to play, this is something that is not possible with a national team. The fact that there are only two more international breaks to get his ideas across is not enough time.
Nagelsmann is unlikely to be the next Germany coach and will probably prefer a move to a club that could have an opening soon…
Oliver Glasner
Glasner is also a former Bundesliga manager currently without a job after leaving Frankfurt once his contract expired at the end of last season. This means that the DFB will not have to pay Frankfurt anything if they wish to hire Glasner as their new manager. The former Frankfurt boss is more pragmatic than Nagelsmann and would not require as much time on the training ground than the former Bayern coach.
The fact that Glasner had previously been linked with the Austria job suggests that he is not against the idea of managing an international team and taking up the Germany job would be a step up from Frankfurt.
(GGFN’s pick) Stefan Kuntz
Although Kuntz is currently in charge of the Turkish national team, the opportunity to take charge of the German national team could possibly turn his head. Some may suggest that Kuntz should of been the natural successor for Joachim Low back in 2021 as he had led the under-21 side to a European Championship title and it would of been the natural progress to promote him with some of the players that have also been promoted into the senior side (Florian Wirtz, Nico Schlotterbeck and David Raum)
During his spell as Turkey manager, Kuntz has only lost four games, three of which have been against Italy, Portugal and Croatia and with better quality players that could of overcome them.
Promotion of an under-21 manager has also proven to be somewhat successful in the past, as England promoted Gareth Southgate who has since led the team to a World Cup semi-final and Euro final, while Spain promoted Luis de la Fuente who has gone on to lead the team to a Nations League triumph.
The best of the rest
Other names that have been suggested are Völler and Sammer, both have been out of management for 20 years and with such a quick turnaround until the Euros, the DFB will likely want a manager who is more in tune with today’s current playing styles. Both also currently have other roles with the DFB and Borussia Dortmund so it is a question whether they would be fully committed.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
