Discoverers of Klopp as experts
Ex-ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz is dead
03/28/2022, 1:01 p.m
Dieter Gruschwitz brings Jürgen Klopp to ZDF as an expert for the 2006 World Cup, when he is just at the beginning of his path to becoming a world coach. It is a coup in a phase of upheaval in the world of sports reporting, for which he has been responsible for more than a decade at ZDF. Now Gruschwitz is dead.
Former ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz is dead. According to the broadcaster, the journalist died on Sunday near Bad Tölz at the age of 68. “Dieter Gruschwitz has managed ZDF’s sports reporting for many years with sovereignty and composure,” said ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey in a statement in recognition of the long-standing head of the main sports editorial team. “Inside and outside the house, he stood for reliability and fairness in a period of upheaval in which the sports rights market and the perception of sport have changed rapidly,” Frey said.
Gruschwitz came to Sender Freies Berlin in 1979 after studying journalism, Slavic studies and English in Mainz. In 1996 he switched to ZDF. From 2005 to 2017 he was ZDF sports director. The former judoka was also the station’s team manager at several World and European Football Championships as well as at the Winter and Summer Olympics.
Gruschwitz has received several awards for his work. Among other things, in 2006 he received the German Television Award for the best coverage of the World Cup in Germany. At the 2006 World Cup, he hired Swiss referee Urs Meier and coach Jürgen Klopp, an expert duo that delighted TV viewers. At that time, Klopp was still the coach of the Bundesliga team Mainz 05 and, despite all his popularity, was still a long way from his current status as one of the world stars among the great coaches. Gruschwitz also received the German Television Award for broadcasting the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.