What had happened between 26 July 2004, the day Jürgen Klinsmann was announced as the new manager of the German national team, and March 2006, which was dominated by a spiteful media campaign against the man who had been supposed to be the providential saviour?
First, it should be remembered that Jürgen Klinsmann was only ever the last resort at the end of most burlesque headhunting process, following the resignation of the very popular Rudi Völler on 24 June 2004. The leadership of the DFB – a federation that had celebrated its centenary with great pride only for years earlier – no doubt thought that top-level candidates would be lining up to take the helm of their prestigious national team. Alas, they went from disappointment to disappointment.
Their favourite, Ottmar Hitzfeld, who after all had won the Champions League with two different clubs – Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern Munich in 2001 – immediately declined, citing the urgent need for a ‘sabbatical to recharge his batteries’. Otto Rehhagel, who had just landed one of the biggest surprise victories in the history of football in winning the European Championship with Greece, did not want to break his ongoing contract. The search then turned to foreign candidates, provided they were (more or less) fluent in German: the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, the Frenchman Arsène Wenger, and the Dane Morten Olsen. None of them was willing to change jobs for a position where the expectations placed on the team to be managed were disproportionate to its potential. In the 17 July edition of the Financial Times, Simon Kuper (an Oxford graduate in German!) wrote a hilarious column about this desperate quest.
Who exactly had the idea of contacting Jürgen Klinsmann? Was it Berti Vogts? Klinsmann, who had settled in California since retiring as a player in 1998, had not applied for the job. It is true that despite his exile (and his management studies completed in the United States), he had remained in contact with German football: as TV pundit during the 2002 World Cup, as administrator of a football and health website for kids, and as ambassador for the upcoming Weltmeisterschaft from 2003 onwards.
In 2001, I spoke to him on the phone for a long interview. He made it clear to me that, in his humble opinion, the DFB needed profound reforms, but that these would not come from within. ‘The whole shop would have to be dismantled,’ he said, a phrase he also used in some interviews with the media and later described as ‘undiplomatic’. At no point through our talk, however, did I get the impression that he felt the calling to be the reformer himself.
Yet that is exactly what happened. Suddenly, it was announced that the DFB leadership had held a five-hour meeting with Klinsmann in New York on 20 July 2004. This was followed by a week of tough negotiations and a joint press conference. Little did they know about the degree of change that lay ahead.
Next episode : Every valley shall be exalted (and every mountain and hill made low).
