Thursday December 24th 2020
"He killed me"
Stielike's bad memories of Klinsmann
The former national soccer player Uli Stielike ended a long career at the beginning of December. The 1980 European champion has unpleasant memories of his last international football stint – and without Jürgen Klinsmann he would have saved them.
Long-time soccer coach Uli Stielike has painful memories of the Corona period during his last stop in China. "The worst was the 14 days in a hotel room in Shanghai, that was by far the most stressful thing. Those were 14 days in which nothing happened at all. Nobody came into the room. I couldn't even do my laundry I think it's even more pleasant in prison, "said Stielike in an interview with the" Rheinpfalz "(Thursday).
The 66-year-old, who became European champion with Germany in 1980 and vice world champion in 1982, had coached the Chinese first division team Tianjin Teda until summer 2020. Then he ended his career. The three years at the club in China were very "stressful" because there was "a lot of pressure from above". That is not comparable to Europe, since companies or politics are behind the clubs. "Accordingly, those responsible are also people who have no idea about football. Some of them make decisions that are simply incomprehensible because they lack any sporting basis."
After 45 years, "you have to come to an end at some point," said Stielike at the end of his coaching career. He had spent a few years of that at the German Football Association, mainly in youth work. "At that time Jürgen Klinsmann killed me, who had a free hand from President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder. He gave him all the freedom. That was good clinking from the Stuttgart days. Klinsmann praised me from the DFB. Otherwise I would probably be the way Gone by Horst Hrubesch ", said Stielike looking back on the time at the association, which ended in 2006.
. (tagsToTranslate) football (t) DFB (t) football national team (t) Jürgen Klinsmann