When Rudi Völler had finally completed all media activities after his acclaimed comeback as team boss, he left the Dortmund stadium shortly after midnight, despite all his joy and pride, and also visibly exhausted. And, from his point of view: again as DFB sports director.
In any case, the 63-year-old did not want to shake his one-off temporary role in the coaching bench during the 2:1 (1:0) against World Cup finalists France, which was so liberating for the team, fans and also the DFB on Wednesday night.
“It was very tiring”
In any case, when asked whether he would like it even better in the stands at the next international match, he replied: “Yes! Yes! It doesn’t change the result. For me that’s very clear.” And Völler explained the personal reasons for this: “It was very tiring. I’ll be honest, it was a stressful few days,” he said, referring to truly turbulent hours with the release of national coach Hansi Flick and rapid preparation for the French.
“It’s not just about one game, that’s no problem, I’ll manage it,” said Völler, almost trying to understand: “The whole package was very strenuous.” The vote of the more than 60,000 happy spectators in the stands on Tuesday evening would probably have been quite clear if they were allowed to decide on the coach who should lead the DFB team to the 2024 home European Championship.
Völler’s instructions
Actively supported by young sports director and U20 selection coach Hannes Wolf as well as ex-national player Sandro Wagner, Völler managed to break the negative trend in his own way. Thomas Müller, who was able to celebrate his 34th birthday after the game as the scorer of the early and groundbreaking 1-0, spoke of “a small emotional release” after five games without a win, a lot of frustration and self-doubt.
Goalkeeper Mac-André ter Stegen reported that a few things had been changed under Völler’s guidance: “We wanted to have a structure that was relatively simple.” Clear system, clear distribution of tasks, collaborative work – and above all, defend vigorously. Jonathan Tah and Benjamin Henrichs, who were new to the starting line-up, were not the only ones who did this in an exemplary manner. “It just feels good,” said Völler happily when victory became a reality after Leroy Sané’s late goals to make it 2-0 and Antoine Griezmann’s penalty goal.
Flick successor
What’s next? Völler wants to stick to the plan of finding a Flick successor together with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Joachim Watzke. “My wish would be if we could introduce the new national coach by the next international match period. That would of course be the ideal case,” said Völler.
On October 9th, the national team will travel to the US East Coast for two games against the USA and Mexico. Völler still did not want to comment on the candidates traded around the supposed favorite Julian Nagelsmann to succeed Flick. However, he named one criterion when asked whether a foreigner like Louis van Gaal could also become a national coach. “It’s important that it’s a German-speaking national coach. And of course it has to be a top man. That’s the most important coaching job in our country.” Völler once again filled him in very successfully for one evening.
