Germany lost 4-1 to Japan on Saturday and DFB have wasted no time in sacking Hansi Flick. They will face France in their next friendly and Rudi Völler has been named the caretaker coach for the time being.
Germany have been in dismal form in recent times and they are winless in their previous five outings. Hansi Flick took charge of the national team in August of 2021 and under him, Germany have lost six and drawn seven out of the 25 matches they have played.
The 48-year-old was super successful at Bayern Munich but he’s clearly not managed to take that form into the national team. He has a win percentage of just 48 during his 770 days reign and under him, the team also performed really poorly in the previous World Cup.
The hunt for the next Germany manager has already begun so we decided to look at some of the people whose names are being discussed right now.
Who is going to replace Hansi Flick?
One of the first names that has come up is of current Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and this is not the first time he’s been associated with the job.
DFB will surely get in touch with Klopp in the coming days but he’s time and again, talked about his loyalty to the Anfield outfit so it’s highly unlikely he will replace Hansi Flick.
“The job of national coach is and would be a great honour – there’s no question about that,” Klopp had told Sky in Germany in the summer. “The problem that stands in the way of the whole thing is my loyalty.
“I can’t just leave Liverpool now and say I’ll take over Germany for a short time. That doesn’t work and the request isn’t even there. If I’m supposed to do that at some point, then I have to be available and I’m not currently. I have a responsibility towards the club.
“Basically, it’s an interesting job. But I don’t know yet whether I’ll do something completely different after I leave Liverpool. I want to keep my options open.”
German newspaper BILD is claiming that Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane is one of the leading candidates to take over Flick. Julian Nagelsmann is another name that’s doing the rounds along with Ex-Eintracht Frankfurt boss Oliver Glasner.
Zidane will obviously be a top-class successor but since leaving Madrid in 2021, the France legend has been on an extended leave. It’s going to be a gamble to name him a national team coach(because all he’s done is manage star-studded Madrid teams) but the 51-year-old has had tremendous success with the Los Blancos, something that can’t go unnoticed.
Julian Nagelsmann was sacked by Bayern Munich back in March and even though he’s done some good job at Bayern and Leipzig DFB will want to bring in an experienced manager at the time of such crisis. Germany will need a highly experienced manager who can quickly get the team back on their feet and a 36-year-old Nagelsmann is not ideal for that.
Louis Van Gaal’s name has also been mentioned and we have a feeling the 72-year-old is going to be the perfect candidate to succeed Hansi Flick. Van Gaal, until 2022, was in charge of the Netherlands side and he has tremendous experience of managing national teams.
