U21-Out as defending champion
Ex-DFB coach Stefan Kuntz asks a big character question
06/30/2023, 16:07
Stefan Kuntz may be coaching Turkey’s national team at the moment, but his word still carries weight in Germany. He won two titles during his time with the German U21s. His successor, Antonio Di Salvo, was less fortunate. Kuntz has an explanation for this. It is not pleasing.
Former DFB coach Stefan Kuntz has at least “a little” concern about German football after the German U21s were eliminated from the European Championship. “These are developments that you’ve been seeing for a while. It was a confirmation of the trend,” said the 60-year-old after the preliminary round knockout. title led.
Compared to his own time, Kuntz missed players with strong character in the U21s. The biggest difference to the 2021 European champions “was perhaps not the playing time or the quality of the players, but the attitude, the mentality, the character,” he said.
Especially the last group game against England (0:2) showed this weakness. “At some point you don’t have to care what the coach says. If your opponent plays you, you have to say: Watch out, not with me. Niklas Dorsch, Salih Özcan and other of my players showed at some point that it wasn’t like that that we want to win a game like that. I didn’t see that in anyone, that surprised me a bit,” said Kuntz.
But failure could also have its good side. “The U21 European Championship is the perfect mirror. There are only people of the same age, there are no excuses. This mirror shows what I can and can’t do. If every player takes the knowledge from the mirror with them, then this tournament was good for something , especially for self-assessment,” he said.
Despite the failure, Kuntz did not allow any doubts about his successor Antonio Di Salvo. “Yes, absolutely,” said Kuntz when asked if his former assistant and current head coach is the right man for the U21 European Championship 2025.