Nine months before Euro 2024 at home, German coach Hansi Flick was dismissed from his post the day after a humiliating defeat in a friendly match against Japan (4-1), the German Federation (DFB) announced on Sunday. . For the friendly match on Tuesday evening (9 p.m.) in Dortmund against France, it is the current sporting director Rudi Völler, the U-20 coach Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner who will act as interim before the Federation chooses Flick’s successor for the European Championship (June 14-July 14).
Among the names of potential successors to Flick circulating in the media are Julian Nagelsmann, the former Bayern coach sidelined at the end of March, the Austrian Oliver Glasner, winner of the Europa League with Frankfurt in 2022, and Stefan Kuntz, double European champion in the past with the hopefuls (2017 and 2021).
A rare decision
Hansi Flick led his last training session late Sunday morning, open to the public, at the head of the Mannschaft in Wolsfburg. In contact with the 3,500 spectators, he was combative. “Yes, yes, I continue to fight,” he said, recognizing however that in professional football, it was difficult to predict anything.
The DFB ultimately opted for the most radical solution, a novelty for it, while none of Flick’s ten predecessors as coach had been dismissed from their functions. Whether Berti Vogts (1998), Erich Ribbeck (2000) or Rudi Völler (2004), all had resigned after fiascos at the World Cup or the Euro.
Arriving in office in the summer of 2021 to succeed the long mandate of Joachim Löw (15 years) marked by the world title in 2014, Hansi Flick found himself under increasing pressure as the counterattacks -performances followed one another.
Catastrophic sequence
After his elimination in the first round at the 2022 World Cup, the German Federation decided to keep him in his position, while appointing Rudi Völler as sports director to supervise him. The sequence of friendly matches in March and June was catastrophic, with only one victory against modest Peru (2-0), a draw snatched at the last minute against Ukraine (3-3) and defeats against Belgium (3-2, the first on German soil since 1954), Poland (1-0) and Colombia (2-0).
But even after the humiliation against Japan (4-1) on Saturday evening in Wolfsburg, Flick claimed to be the man for the job. Völler, however, dodged the question of whether Flick would remain, postponing a night of reflection to take stock. “Hansi raus!” (“Hansi out!”) began to be heard in the stands of the stadium in Wolfsburg on Saturday evening after the fourth Japanese goal which completed ten months of a descent into hell for the Mannschaft.