“This is something great”
Bierhoff misses the pressure after his DFB exit
November 9, 2023, 10:13 a.m
Oliver Bierhoff has not been with the DFB for almost a year. Since then, his life has become quiet, almost too quiet; he always saw the pressure as something “great,” says the former team manager. He is not employed full-time by the NFL club New England Patriots.
After leaving the DFB, Oliver Bierhoff still sees himself as the biggest fan of the German national football team. It is and remains the most important team in Germany, said the 1996 European champion and former director of the German Football Association to the German Press Agency (DPA). Bierhoff was eliminated from the association after the DFB team’s preliminary round exit at the World Cup in Qatar.
The 55-year-old wants to experience the home European Championship next summer as a fan and also be there in the stadiums. “What I can already notice is the difference: the pressure is gone,” said Bierhoff. “I also feel what an incredible privilege it is to be able to stand down on the pitch and have responsibility for a team. That’s something great. I’ve always been someone who liked pressure and responsibility.”
His new job is also in sports, but “not a full-time, operational job.” Since mid-October, Bierhoff has been working as a “business advisor” for the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. It’s not entirely new territory for him. “I’ve been a football fan for over 15 years. The sport has always fascinated me,” said the 55-year-old to the Sports Information Service (SID). He can enjoy football in front of his television in a different way than football. “You’re not tied to an armchair for 90 minutes. You can get up and do other things,” says Bierhoff, adding that he appreciates “this American way of watching sports.”
Bierhoff, responsible for the German-speaking market, is in regular contact with the franchise. “We have weekly or bi-weekly Jour Fixe. I was over there for two or three days for the introduction and went through the departments,” explained the former national soccer player. He will also be on site more often. “It will happen that you go over every two months.”
“Football is still my great love”
On Sunday (3.30 p.m./RTL and in the ntv.de live ticker) The Patriots play against the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt. Bierhoff is “of course there. Unfortunately I won’t be called up for kicking,” he said with a smile. The ratings the NFL has achieved so far in this country have “personally surprised him a bit. That it wasn’t just a selective hype,” says Bierhoff: “I get it from my friends and acquaintances, how many are following it.”
Nevertheless, nothing has shifted in its popularity scale. “Football is still my great love,” Bierhoff emphasized to the SID. The new job is “not a turning away from football”, but “an expansion of horizons. For me it is incredibly exciting to look behind the scenes.”
The former striker said everyone should look forward to the European Championships in Germany. “We are currently experiencing a mood around the national team that has certain parallels to the mood in the country. I hope that we manage to use the European Championships positively and brighten the mood a little,” Bierhoff told the DPA. This works best with a good and successful German national team. He praised the new national coach Julian Nagelsmann as a top coach, who he kept his fingers crossed for as well as the team.