His more than one-hour presentation as the new director of the ailing German Football Association was hardly enough for Hannes Wolf.
The 42-year-old, who will be responsible for youth development, training and development, gave such a detailed account of his area of responsibility on the DFB campus with his large “competence team” in the second row that Bernd Neuendorf’s assessment seemed understated. “He’s just up for it,” said the DFB President. “Hannes Wolf loves football.”
The former Bundesliga coach is to address future worries after the recent weak performance of youngsters in a new sports structure at the DFB. Rudi Völler remains responsible for the men’s national team, while the search for the best team for the women’s selection is still ongoing. All three are sports directors, or two sports directors and one sports director, said Neuendorf.
DFB management posts are also to be filled
The management position that was orphaned after Oliver Bierhoff left at the end of 2022 is to be filled again. The DFB did not comment on names – in conversation is the former world footballer Nadine Kessler, who currently works for the European Football Union UEFA and who is believed to be capable of great things.
According to Völler, Wolf would have preferred to start much earlier and was “an important building block,” said Neuendorf. The new director had brought a presentation about the forms of play and training content as well as members of his team, which includes Sandro Wagner, Hanno Balitsch, the Bender twins Lars and Sven and Lena Lotzen.
It can be said about himself that he has never played at a high level or that he still lacks 20 years of life experience, said Wolf. In the team, however, there is “the know-how from all perspectives to talk about football and training”. The longest-serving key figure is 69-year-old Hermann Gerland, who celebrated a number of titles as an assistant coach at Bayern Munich.
Wolf tore basic problems in the offspring. In England and France three to four times as many players from the Under-21 level are used, he said. “That doesn’t mean that we have bad players, but we’re lacking the top players overall.” The awakening in the youth sector, where changes have been critically debated for months, is not “rocket science,” said Wagner. “That’s the nice thing.”
With the future project in 2018, the DFB initiated far-reaching reforms in the youth field. Most recently, the restructuring of the youth competitions and the abolition of the previous A and B junior federal leagues had been decided. Changes are also being sought in the areas of coach development, funding structures and football development.
Völler on Wolf: “I know he’s on fire”
“If we can do that, at some point we’ll say: Wow, where are the new players coming from?” said Wolf. The 42-year-old did not give a forecast as to when this could pay off in European or World Championship titles. After the embarrassing elimination of the men’s and women’s national teams at the respective world championships in the preliminary round, time is of the essence.
Types of players would have to be trained again “who also bring a certain mentality, this quality of will to win duels again,” said Völler. These are things “that have been missing a bit in recent years”. There was a certain discrepancy in the level of detail between Völler’s and Wolf’s explanations. But: It will “work wonderfully,” said Völler, who brought Wolf to Bayer Leverkusen in 2021 as an interim coach. “I know it’s already on fire.”
