DFB leaves the Rudi-Völler path

In 2024, the German Football Association will have a female sports director in charge of women's soccer for the first time. Nia Künzer will be the counterpart to Rudi Völler. But there is good reason to hope that the 43-year-old will do a lot better.

Back to the future: Two World Cup titles, eight European Championship titles, the women are the most successful team in the German Football Association. But they won't have their own sports director to look after their interests until 2024. Long overdue. However, the choice of Nia Künzer shows that the association is looking to the future in this personnel matter. And that is a good thing. Künzer is so different from her male counterpart Rudi Völler.

There will be no regulars' table slogans with the 43-year-old. No invitations to her old buddy Waldemar Hartmann on questionable TV shows on questionable channels. Firstly, because she simply doesn't have this past, and secondly, because Künzer is known for her straightforwardness. Someone who is sometimes provocative in order to be heard. Her book, which she published together with TV expert Bernd Schmelzer, is not called "Why women play better soccer" for nothing. If something doesn't suit her, she addresses it without shying away from big names.

Above all, she does not stop at the DFB. After announcing the composition of the hastily created DFB task force in the wake of the men's World Cup disgrace, Künzer criticized: "I don't know whether this task force brings together a variety of perspectives," she told the Frankfurter Rundschau. "I think that there are definitely experts who would have fitted in well."

As one of her last official acts in her 17-year expert job at ARD, she then criticized DFB President Bernd Neuendorf in the summer. After the German women's World Cup debacle in Australia, he had announced full-bodied that not everything should be questioned and that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg would of course remain in her position as national coach. "For me, that was contradictory. There was actually no need to create facts so quickly." It was also "extremely unfortunate" that Neuendorf was not on site. She will now work with Neuendorf - and be involved in the urgently required "results- and solution-oriented" reappraisal. It is Neuendorf who explicitly praises her in the DFB press release for her "critical eye".

A breath of fresh air for a smart DFB

It can only be of benefit to the association if Künzer retains her critical spirit and thus brings a breath of fresh air into the association, which is so often accused of being outdated and old-fashioned. Most recently, the appointment of Rudi Völler, who is still popular with many soccer fans, revealed just how much power the cronyism in the boardroom has. Künzer, on the other hand, comes "from the outside" and hasn't been in the DFB bubble for years. Despite her many years as an ARD expert, her view cannot be reduced to soccer alone. That was just a part-time job; full-time, she has broadened her horizons as head of the department for refugee affairs in the Giessen Regional Council for initial reception facilities and integration, has had personnel responsibility for more than 40 people - and accordingly knows what it's like to lead a team.

What Künzer has in common with Völler, however, is the nimbus of having won a world championship title. In 2003, she even scored the decisive golden goal in the final against Sweden. The goal was voted goal of the year and put her in the history books forever. But she doesn't revel in it, and in an interview with ntv.de she also addressed the negative aspects of her goal .

Honest love for soccer

As a former player, she knows what and who a team needs. That's a good thing, as one of her first official acts must be to help find a new national coach. Interim coach Horst Hrubesch will continue his job for the time being and try to qualify for the Olympic Games with the team. But after the tournament at the latest, it will be over and a successor will be needed for the long-term preparations for the 2025 European Championships. The professionalization of the league, which unlike the men's league operates under the umbrella of the DFB, will also be her task in the future. "We're talking about a Bundesliga in which some teams are very professional, but others are still very simple. Of course you have to make sure that the gap doesn't get too big," she told ntv.de.

Nia Künzer loves soccer, not just women's soccer, and is not a non-expert CEO who is only interested in figures, profitability and profit. She will not let the emotional value of soccer, of the national team, which is so out of touch with itself at the moment but was runner-up in the European Championships in 2022, fall by the wayside in favor of other factors. With her, the DFB has a familiar yet new face in its leadership team, who still has room to develop in her new role. Not stuck in stereotypes and at the same time young enough to establish an era. At the DFB, this could provide a whole new impetus. The focus is on the future, not back to the old, glorious days.

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Despite her success as a player, Nia Künzer is not afraid to criticize the DFB, as she did after the women's World Cup debacle in Australia and the hastily created task force. She stated, "I don't know whether this task force brings together a variety of perspectives," and questioned the inclusion of certain experts.

As the new sports director for 'dfb-women,' Nia Künzer emphasized her desire to address the negative aspects of her famous goal in an interview with ntv.de, showing her honesty and love for soccer, not just women's soccer.

Source: www.ntv.de