When Jurgen Klinsmann was playing hardball with Uli Hoeneß
Jürgen Klinsmann has experienced so much in his career - yet he remains an elusive figure for his fans. Whether as a player or coach, great successes and headline-grabbing failures have always been closely intertwined. Today, the World Cup winner celebrates his 60th birthday.
Uli Hoeneß once said: "It's almost impossible to describe Jürgen Klinsmann. I believe no one really knows him. He's a phenomenon." There's probably a lot of truth in this attempt to describe the eternal Bayern legend through the blond 1990 World Cup winner. For Jürgen Klinsmann himself once said about his professional career: "I never know what I'm going to do next in a game. I'm completely unpredictable, even to myself. Sometimes I'm surprised by what I do on the pitch - but only when I see it on TV later!" Perhaps these words are a good description of the life of the Swabian born in Göppingen. Because even for football fans, the son of a baker who is celebrating his 60th birthday today, has always been a difficult figure to grasp.
Klinsmann started the 1987/88 season with a bang. In that season, he became Germany's new "blond angel" as Klinsmann saved his opponent Norbert Nachtweih from a red card in the 3:0 win for VfB against Bayern. The Stuttgart player was writhing in pain on the Neckarstadion pitch after a duel with Nachtweih, but when he saw referee Dieter Pauly reaching for the red card, he jumped up, ran to the ref, and begged him not to punish the Bayern player. His plea was successful.
The fact that it was already 2:0 and Klinsmann himself had scored a "goal of the decade" with a backheel may have supported his actions. In any case, Germany had gained a real heartthrob from that moment on. And not only the equally blond-haired Nachtweih was happy about that. He was so happy that he promised to send champagne, "if Klinsmann even knows what that is!"
When he soon thought about a transfer from Stuttgart to another club - by now he was in high demand all over Europe - he said two interesting sentences to the press. The first: "I don't want to switch to Bayern, I'd rather get to know a real other country." And when Klinsmann then announced his transfer to Italy's Inter Milan at the end of the season, he dictated the following exciting sentence to the reporters: "Bayern Munich was not possible for me, not with my nature!"
His nature seemed to have changed over the years in Italy, so he accepted the offer from Bayern after his time in Milan. Together with an Italian ("The Rizzitelli and I are already a great trio"), the blond Swabian stirred up the Bundesliga for the record champion. Despite all sporting successes, however, his legendary kick into a blue bin remained in the memory of football fans. He had to apologize afterwards and promised: "That won't happen again. Advertising bins don't have to fear me."
When Klinsmann left Bayern later, he took the championship title with him to England to Tottenham. His final words after his intense time at Bayern were: "It was beautiful, it was crazy, somehow!" Years later, he returned to Munich and reportedly even surprised his mother with this spectacular news. When reporters asked her if she had heard about her son's appointment as FC Bayern's trainer, she replied: "No, I didn't know that. Oh my god!"
Klinsmann's experience can't save him
At the start of the season, there was a lot that was new at Bayern. Klinsmann ("I will make every player a little better every day") had completely overhauled the club. But one thing remained the same: Uli Hoeneß, who wanted to exchange his place on the bench for a seat in the stands, was asked by the new Bayern coach Jürgen Klinsmann to reconsider this idea. Hoeneß was visibly pleased with the former national coach's request and took his seat between him and his assistant Martin Vasquez. Klinsmann said at the time about his unexpected decision: "Uli is my boss, but also my advisor. That's 30 years of experience next to me. It would be stupid to miss out on that. That's why I asked him to continue sitting on the bench."
But in the end, even Uli Hoeneß couldn't help Klinsmann. When Bayern were in danger of missing out on direct qualification for the Champions League five games before the end of the season, they acted quickly and fired Klinsmann after the 0:1 home defeat against FC Schalke 04 on the 29th matchday - even though the next day, Bayern's competitor VfL Wolfsburg lost 0:2 in Cottbus. After Uli Hoeneß broke the news to Klinsmann, he said: "I think Jürgen was surprised that we are so consistently following through with the decision we made yesterday. He also saw the game of our friends in Cottbus yesterday and maybe thought that the decision would be postponed."
The brief liaison ended unhappily. But the real rift with Klinsmann - with whom, as usual after the departure, a mutual silence was agreed upon - only came after a TV appearance by the former Bayern coach in Günther Jauch's show "stern TV". Hoeneß reacted noticeably annoyed: "I learned in Latin: Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses - that means: If you had kept silent, you would have remained a philosopher." And he was also angry with the moderator: "He gave Jürgen a platform to tell things that aren't true without asking critical questions." About Günther Jauch's announcement of Jürgen Klinsmann as the "Barack Obama of German football", Hoeneß could only laugh: "If Jürgen is the Obama of German football, then I am Mother Teresa."
That was the end of Jürgen Klinsmann's coaching career in Germany - at least for now, as it turned out later. Because then came the 2019/20 season. At the beginning of February, after exactly 76 days and 76 million spent on the transfer market, the Swabian resigned as Hertha BSC's coach. Shortly afterwards, he presented the curious public with a wonderfully candid diary.
Summary: Ten Weeks of Hertha BSC
Under the heading "Summary: Ten Weeks of Hertha BSC", the former national team coach reviewed his activities in a 22-page internal protocol and candidly revealed the situation at Hertha - as two fragments show: "Team in a catastrophic physical and mental state." And: "The planning for the preparation of the second round, for which Michael Preetz is responsible, is a catastrophe." It is likely to be his final chapter as a coach in the Bundesliga.
Back then, when his time as Bundestrainer was over, the "Spiegel" wrote: "The end of Siegfried & Roy". That was after the summer fairy tale of the 2006 World Cup. Even the persuasive skills of Franz Beckenbauer failed to deter Klinsmann from his resignation as Bundestrainer: "The Kaiser said: 'Keep going!' And I said: 'Let's see.'" At that time, Klinsmann returned to the USA. But before that, he told his co-trainer Joachim Löw: "Jogi can call me anytime. He just has to think about the time difference."
Klinsmann and the Summer Fairy Tale
When he succeeded Rudi Völler as Bundestrainer after the 2004 European Championship, many thought like Ottmar Hitzfeld: "That's like a phoenix rising from the ashes." But Klinsmann had planned this for a long time. One day, he sent a fax to his advisor Ronald Eitel, on which only stood: "Bundestrainer seems okay. What do you think? How do we proceed?" Former DFB team manager Berti Vogts played a significant role in implementing this fixed idea. Vogts later said: "Without me, Jürgen Klinsmann would still be surfing today." Thomas Gottschalk used the surprising news for a joke in his Saturday evening show: "I got a shock in the summer! When I heard the new Bundestrainer comes from California and is blonde, I thought: Ha - do I have to do everything?"
But initially, it didn't go smoothly for Klinsmann and his team. After the 1:4 defeat in Italy in March 2006, the situation for the Swabian became precarious. On the one hand, the football public criticized Klinsmann's training methods ("When the rubber band training came on TV, I wondered if we had April 1st", Hermann Gerland), and on the other hand, his place of residence sparked discussions. Klinsmann refused to move to Germany. He stayed in California ("If he wins the World Cup title, he can even move to Hawaii", Stefan Effenberg). The mayor of California, a district in Schleswig-Holstein's Schönberg, used the heated discussion to promote his town: "He saves long flights and can still enjoy sun, beach, and sea."
The waves smoothed out with the start of the tournament. At the latest with the victory in the second group match against Poland in Dortmund in the last minute, everything was forgotten. The World Cup in his own country became an unforgettable "summer fairy tale" - and the blonde Swabian, with his empathetic manner, had a significant share in this success and this wonderful time.
At the end of his active football career, Klinsmann had said: "I no longer have the desire for airport, football, and airport again. I don't need that anymore. And I no longer need money." But he has remained in the football business. Perhaps he has remembered an old motto of his at some point: "A baker cannot live on the bread he baked yesterday. And a footballer cannot live on his last game. It's always about here and now." All the best and happiness to you, dear Jürgen Klinsmann, on your 60th birthday!
After his successful stint at Bayern Munich, Klinsmann moved to England to play for Tottenham. He reflected on his time at Bayern, saying, "It was beautiful, it was crazy, somehow!" Years later, he returned to Munich and surprised his mother with his appointment as FC Bayern's trainer.
Despite his impressive coaching career, Klinsmann's tenure at Bayern came to an end prematurely when they were in danger of missing out on the Champions League. After Bayern fired him, Klinsmann was asked about his surprise at the decision, responding, "I also saw the game of our friends in Cottbus yesterday and maybe thought that the decision would be postponed."
