Jürgen Klinsmann has experienced a lot in his footballing life. World Cup title in 1990 in Rome, European champion in 1996 in Wembley, innovator of German football before the summer fairy tale of 2006, wild adventures at Bayern Munich or Hertha BSC. A career as a player and coach with many highs, but also some lows.
As his 60th birthday approaches on July 30th, he looked back on some chapters of his dazzling career in an interview with transfermarkt.de (like WELT, which is part of Axel Springer SE).
… his critical work report on Hertha BSC, which was made public: “As a supervisory board member, I had to write this professional work report for Lars Windhorst (former Hertha investor, the editorial team) make. It was agreed upon and was valued. The report subsequently reached ‘SPORT BILD’ and was published in pieces as a diary. Whoever it came from. I still don’t know that to this day. I got a lot of fire from that. The fact that this came to the media was a fiasco for me. Although I was completely right about every single point. I stand by what I have seen, experienced and written down. Of course, I read everything again before sending it out by email. What do I learn from this? That I probably won’t write a work report like this again. I only pass on my experiences in conversations and make sure that they are not recorded.” (laughs)
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… his help for Hertha investor Lars Windhorst: “I base my decisions on my feelings and emotions in the respective situation. About trust in the decision-making process. At Hertha BSC I wanted to help Lars with his mega investment so that there was no belly landing. I said: ‘Look, Lars, I’ll go in there and take a look. I’ll tell you straight to your face how I see it.’ I wrote that down too.”
… the “night and fog campaign” that made him the Hertha coach: “It was a total cloak and dagger operation. I was asked to fly over when we were third from bottom. I suggested a few coaches and people with vision who could have taken the club up step by step with a proper plan. At three o’clock in the morning, in the course of this hectic discussion after I got off the plane, I suddenly became the trainer myself. I think if I had slept on it for two or three more nights, I would have said: ‘For God’s sake! I’m happy to give you my advice, but I’ll stay away from it.’ Then I had to call my wife that night and tell her about my commitment for the next few weeks. (…) I never had a written contract with Hertha BSC. We shook hands and I said: ‘I’ll help you now.’ We tried to build something long-term, but they didn’t want that. Then after ten weeks I said: Get off my back!”
… his sensational departure from Hertha: “I understand where the rabbit is going. That’s why I walked out. In retrospect, I should have done it completely differently and managed it communicatively. But that’s just how I am. This impulse came back to me like when I kicked a barrel. There was this one moment and it was enough for me – short circuit. This was something that crossed my mind that evening and I implemented it the next morning. (laughs) It wasn’t working for me anymore. I said to Hertha for the umpteenth time that something had to be done.“
Klinsmann announces his resignation as Hertha coach on Facebook
Jürgen Klinsmann’s resignation surprised Hertha officials as much as it surprised the fans. In a Facebook Live video, Klinsmann answered questions from supporters.
Source: Facebook/Jürgen Klinsmann
… a possible follow-up discussion with those responsible at Hertha and Windhorst:
“I met Lars two or three times and spoke on the phone. When the report was published, there was nothing left to process. It’s all true and it could all be read in black and white. So there was no reason to pick up the phone and talk to the other side.”
… the assessment of his coaching career to date and his call to Hertha BSC: “I’m not someone who lives in the past. I’m totally happy with every part of the game as a player – and I’m actually happy with it as a coach too. At first I didn’t want to be one. Berti Vogts persuaded me to take a coaching course with the former 90s and 96s players. Today I am extremely grateful for every section. When I think about the summer fairy tale: I couldn’t get an emotional grip on it anymore. The one year at FC Bayern was incredibly intense, every day was practically a lesson. America was phenomenal. Traveling to other countries and playing games in completely different areas. Of course, the media always follows me with a critical eye. If we don’t win, I will be destroyed or countless arguments will be found. The Hertha BSC issue really damaged my reputation because I left after ten weeks. I wouldn’t have been able to repair anything afterwards; no one would have listened to me and wanted to hear my story anyway.” (laughs)
Celebrated coach: Klinsmann with his coaching team (Köpke, Löw) and team manager Bierhoff (right) after the 2006 World Cup at the official end at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa/DB Marcus Brandt
… his dismissal as South Korean national coach: “The experience ended in a situation where we led the team to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup, we were undefeated for 13 games – and on the eve of the game two players attack each other and get physical (Heung-min Son and Kang-in Lee; the editors). As a result, team spirit flew out the window. As a result, we lost the semi-final against Jordan. The coaching staff was blamed for this, even though we had nothing to do with the dispute. The association saw it in such a way that we could not have foreseen this. In South Korean culture, this sort of thing is an absolute no-go. That’s why I had to give up my seat. Of course that hurt and I thought: Wait a minute, we gave them their biggest success in years and built a never-die mentality within a year. We had planned everything in great detail. It is a shame that our work was portrayed negatively in the media after what was actually a very successful year. (…) Of course, reasons had to be given. The association wanted to save face and passed the buck to the coaching team.”
… his famous barrel kick at FC Bayern in 1997 under Giovanni Trapattoni when he was annoyed about a substitution: “All I know is that the barrel still exists and is in the museum. The kick hurt like hell. I completely slashed my ankle and it was bleeding like crazy. In a split second I realized that I had made a huge mistake. This had been preceded by an argument in Italian, Trap and I were going back and forth. After the game, I immediately apologized to the team and also to him in the dressing room. That should never have happened. I stood in front of him crying and said, ‘Mister, I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened to me.’ Then he said: ‘It’s already forgotten. No problem. This happens out of emotion.’ Of course the bin followed me afterwards.” (laughs)
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… his miraculous healing before winning the European Championship title in 1996: “A lot of things came together. That was the only muscle injury I’ve ever had in my career. I had good medicinal meat. Team doctor Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt and physiotherapist Hans Montag knew me inside out and worked on it every day for a week. Before the final we went jogging in Regent’s Park near the hotel and after 20 minutes the calf closed. Dr. Müller-Wohlfahrt told me: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be ready tomorrow. We can do this.’ And that’s how it happened. I didn’t have any problems in the game for a moment, and extra time wasn’t an issue for me either. I couldn’t believe it either, but it worked like that. That’s why I’m forever grateful to the medical department.”
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… his future plans with a view to his approaching 60th birthday: “If I knew… A lot of things happened in my life overnight. And there are still a few more nights until then. (laughs) I’ve always been surprised by the next steps, especially after my active career. It was still running in an orderly manner, so to speak. I didn’t think I would become a coach either. Many things were improvised or happened that way. I am grateful for every experience I was able to have because over the decades I have met many interesting people and had great experiences at my individual stations on different continents. Ultimately, we spend our entire lives searching for knowledge and experience. It goes on and on, in whatever form. Football with all its facets is far too fascinating for that. (…) I am always a little restless and need this energy in life. I find it hard to tolerate sitting at home all day, it’s just not possible. The term retirement will not exist for me. (smiles)
… the 1994 World Cup tournament that the DFB team drove into the wall: “At that time, everyone attacked Berti Vogts, but he couldn’t help it that we had performed so poorly. This was our fault because we were arrogant and arrogant. We probably thought that Bulgaria was a stopover and only thought about Brazil – and we were badly surprised and fired from the tournament. In terms of quality, we were actually even stronger than in 1990 with players like Matthias Sammer and Stefan Effenberg, but we were no longer a team. The cohesion and enormous will were missing. Maybe it was normal not to be as hungry anymore after winning the World Cup. And so we had the tournament in the USA on the wall.”