Germany general manager, Oliver Bierhoff, has suggested his former teammate Jurgen Klinsmann is in discussions with the Football Association over the vacant managerial role for the England national football team and would be ‘a good fit’ for the role.
Bierhoff was hired by the German Football Association in a new position that was created as part of Jurgen Klinsmann’s acceptance of the coaching job in 2004. Klinsmann has enjoyed a distinguished managerial career, guiding Germany to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup, and recently steered the United States to a best-ever fourth-place finish at the Copa America.
He is a World Cup (1990) and European Championship (1996) winner who has played in the Premier League as a player with Tottenham Hotspur, speaks fluent English and has the international pedigree the FA is said to be on the lookout for.
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Klinsmann is most fondly remembered in Germany as playing a crucial role in reforming the national team set-up a little over a decade ago, helping to kickstart a revolution based on the promotion of youth and setting up of excellent training academies. The results have been immensely fruitful, and Germany have gone on to feature in the semi-finals at six consecutive major tournaments, also winning the 2014 World Cup only recently.
England could benefit from his long-term vision and focus on youth, as they have suffered from poor showings in international tournaments and need the serenity, tactical nous and forward thinking the German would provide.
“It’s not like putting a hand on the shoulder and everything happens,” Bierhoff was quoted by the Guardian when asked about the FA’s intention to take their time in choosing their next manager and appointing a strong figure to revive England’s fortunes “A lot of things need to come together. When we failed at Euro 2000 we invested a lot in the infrastructure and the education of young players and coaches, so now we have a lot of talented players and the Bundesliga is investing in young players.
“Perhaps it is an advantage that good players go to England and other countries, so our clubs have to bring other players through. But since the arrival of Jurgen Klinsmann – who I think is in discussions with England – we have also given the national team a certain pride, atmosphere and organisation. The success of the story is the high quality but also the good organisation and good atmosphere we have in the group.”
Bierhoff went on to suggest that Klinsmann would be a good choice for England : “He would be a good fit. We started in 2004 together and he’s not always, how can I say, nice to handle because he wants to change [things]. But he brings motivation. He has the courage to make difficult decisions and, perhaps, you need something like this.”
