Once the new Bundestrainer was appointed, it quickly became clear that he had managed to negotiate much broader powers and responsibilities than any of his predecessors. Within a few months, Jürgen Klinsmann took important and highly sensitive managerial decisions, whether in terms of strategy, corporate culture or human resources.
He benefited from the active support of Oliver Bierhoff, a former teammate and friend, who was appointed manager of the Nationalmannschaft at the same time. Bierhoff, who had obtained a master’s degree in management science by taking a distance learning course in Germany during the last years of his football career, shared Klinsmann’s ideas and completed a new leadership whose determination was completely underestimated by the DFB leadership.
As the coach did not have the required coaching qualifications, the DFB wanted to bring in Holger Osieck, a coach who had already worked alongside Franz Beckenbauer at the 1990 World Cup. But Klinsmann and Bierhoff preferred Joachim Löw, whose recent coaching career in the Austrian league had gone pretty much unnoticed by the German media, but whose playing philosophy matched the one they wanted to impose on the team: attack-oriented, enthusiastic, courageous.
Their HR management did not stop there: they sacked the legendary Sepp Maier, the goalkeeper’s coach identified as a mole in the service of Bayern and tabloid media, as well as an obstacle to change. He was replaced by Andreas Köpke. They stripped Oliver Kahn of the captain’s armband, as he would no longer be guaranteed a place in the starting line-up. They dismissed the experienced defender Christian Wörns, who was considered disrespectful of the code of conduct presented to the players. Instead, they recruited American fitness coaches, the psychologist Hans-Dieter Hermann, and the Swiss scout and match analyst Urs Siegenthaler.
They gave the players (including thirteen debutants in just fifteen months) plenty of mandatory homework, too! These included personalised DVDs to enable them to analyse their own weaknesses, additional training exercises to be carried out on top of the work in their respective clubs, individual logbooks to keep, and regular exchanges within a newly set up Email group. Everyone had to attend a training in the use of the necessary software.
Other changes had symbolic weight: the 2006 summer training camp, which was supposed to be held in Leverkusen to please Bayer, was moved to Berlin. A trip to Latin America planned for December 2005 was cancelled. Even the DFB’s ‘away’ jersey, which traditionally came in a particularly dull green, was replaced with a bright red one.
This reformative fury was bound to meet with resistance.
Next episode: He was despised, and rejected of men.
