Nine months before Euro 2024, Hansi Flick was dismissed as coach of Germany, one day after the humiliation suffered in the friendly against Japan (4-1), the German Federation (DFB) announced in a statement.
For Tuesday’s game in Dortmund against France, current sporting director Rudi Völler, U20 coach Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will take charge of the team temporarily, before the federation chooses a successor to Flick.
Who will replace him?
Among the names of potential successors to Flick heard in the media are the names of Julian Nagelsmann, removed at the end of March from Bayern Munich, the Austrian Oliver Glasner, the champion of the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, or Stefan Kuntz, successful former German U-21 coach.
Hansi Flick led his last training session this Sunday in the ‘Mannschaft’ title, in Wolfsburg. In front of 3,500 spectators he was reluctant to throw in the towel. “Yes, yes, I keep fighting. It goes on, like that,” he declared, although he acknowledged that in professional football “it’s hard to predict” what will happen.
The DFB finally opted for the most radical solution, the first for it, while none of the last ten predecessors of Flick in the position of coach were removed. Neither Berti Vogts (1998), Erich Ribbeck (2000) nor Rudi Völler (2004), all resigned after their failures in World Cups or Euro Cups.
Coming into the position in the summer of 2021 in Europe to replace Joachim Löw, who spent 15 years at the helm of Germany, Flick finds himself under increasing pressure as the poor consequences.
