Does the German Football Association have to hire two new national coaches? It is possible that after Hansi Flick, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg will also have to vacate her post. The currently ill coach apparently lacks support after the World Cup debacle in Australia.
It is possible that the DFB will have to fill two national coaching positions at the same time. After Hansi Flick’s expulsion from the national soccer team, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s days also seem to be numbered. The national coach, who is currently ill, apparently no longer has a future with the DFB women, as several media reports. The announcement of the end of “MVT” could follow tomorrow, Tuesday.
While still in Wyong at the headquarters of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Voss-Tecklenburg told the press after the historically poor performance with elimination in the preliminary round: “I have never run away when things have become difficult. I remain stubborn and strong. ” But now the decision could be taken out of her hands. The team is meeting this week at the DFB campus in Frankfurt am Main to prepare for the Nations League. The start of the inaugural season of the national tournament follows on Friday (6 p.m./ARD and in the ntv.de live ticker) in Denmark, before next Tuesday in Bochum against Iceland (6.15 p.m./ZDF and in the nv.de live ticker) the first home game after the World Cup is coming up. Qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is possible via the Nations League.
“Our goal is clear: We want to qualify for the Olympic Games,” said Joti Chatzialexiou, the national team sports director. However, that will be a difficult task because only two tickets will be awarded through the Nations League – the DFB team would have to win their group and probably make it to the final of the four-team final tournament.
Voss-Tecklenburg will be missing both in Frankfurt and in the games. She took sick leave after returning from Australia. The World Cup took “Martina a lot,” her husband Hermann Tecklenburg was quoted as saying. “She came back from Australia already sick, she was mentally and physically weak.” He continued to tell “Bild”: “She is now recovering in our garden, taking it easy, she reads a lot. I look after her. That’s what I’m there for.” She is also leaving her position on the supervisory board of second division soccer team Fortuna Düsseldorf due to the illness. Coming to terms with the World Cup debacle has been delayed.
Dissonance within the team
The rumor mill is also bubbling, or perhaps precisely because of her absence. “First of all, we wish Martina a speedy recovery and hope that she returns to our team soon,” said Chatzialexiou. And DFB President Bernd Neuendorf had also explained: “I ask for your understanding, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is ill. That requires respect and care that we not speculate about it.” But of course many do not adhere to the DFB boss’s request.
There are said to have been strong dissonances within the team during the World Cup. There had already been a crash during the World Cup in France in 2019, but afterwards there were discussions and slight restructuring that contributed to an improvement in the climate. This time it’s worse. According to “Bild,” Voss-Tecklenburg is said to have had problems with both the players and the other members of the coaching staff. The players are said to accuse her of a lack of communication, questionable personnel decisions and a poor tactical attitude.
The relationship between Voss-Tecklenburg and the assistant coaches Britta Carlson and Michael Urbansky is also said to have been cold during the World Cup and even reproachful after the tournament. According to the report, both sides demanded that the other leave. However, Carlson expressly contradicted rumors on social media that she had started a survey among the players as to whether MVT was still the right national coach. She saw this as questioning her long-standing integrity as an assistant coach. Together with Urbansky, she conducted “confidential individual discussions” “on behalf of” the national coach. It was about the players’ views on the World Cup. Neuendorf is also said to have phoned the players after the World Cup and it emerged that the team wanted “a new impulse”, even if they did not explicitly demand that they say goodbye to the coaching team.
Assistant coaches supervise upcoming games
Because of their illness, Carlson and Urbansky are now running the sports business, at least temporarily. The nomination for the Nations League is their responsibility, but there were no surprises. Captain Alexandra Popp continues, only Melanie Leupolz ended her career in the national team and is now concentrating on her job at Chelsea FC and her role as a mother. Giulia Gwinn, who has recovered from her second cruciate ligament tear, will be there again. Sara Däbritz will be missing against Denmark and Iceland after a bereavement in the family, as well as Svenja Huth, whose wife Laura has just given birth to their son Emil. “We are all motivated to give it our all again in order to forget a little about what happened at the World Cup,” said central defender Kathrin Hendrich from VfL Wolfsburg.
Carlson will appear with Chatzialexiou at a press conference tomorrow, Tuesday (1:45 p.m.). According to rumors, the end of Voss-Tecklenburg could be announced there. Your contract actually runs until after the 2025 European Championships and was only extended in the spring. She had the tailwind from the successful 2022 European Championships in England on her side. But now, according to Sky, there is a lot to suggest that Voss-Tecklenburg will not return to the coaching bench.
Unlike the men’s national team, possible successors are not as obvious for the women’s national team. While Julian Nagelsmann, Stefan Kuntz and even Felix Magath are up for discussion for the position Flick held, the possible Voss-Tecklenburg heirs are not so obvious. Maybe Carlson and Urbansky could move on. The name Inka Grings also comes up, but the former DFB player is currently the national coach of Switzerland. However, that was also Voss-Tecklenburg before she returned to the DFB in 2018, for whom she had once played 125 international matches.
In any case, the DFB has a lot to do with its women, as the director position is also vacant. At least there is a plan for this: “Andreas Rettig will coordinate this now. We want to reach a result as quickly as possible,” said Neuendorf. The process has been put on track and, according to Neuendorf, the DFB has received “expressions of interest”. According to the DFB boss, what is needed is a “strong personality who can aggressively represent this area in public.”