The name had already been leaked, now the DFB has officially confirmed that Hannes Wolf will be sports director.
“Hannes Wolf is an important building block in the new structure that we want to give ourselves.”said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf on Monday (August 21, 2023) at the presentation in the Frankfurt association headquarters.
The 42-year-old Wolf will be “sports director for young people, training and development”. He previously coached the U20s of the German Football Association. Former Bundesliga professionals Hanno Balitsch, Sandro Wagner and Lars and Sven Bender will also belong to a team of experts led by him. Also there will be Hermann Gerland, U21 coach Antonio Di Salvo, Sabine Loderer, Lena Lotzen, Nikola Ludwig and Daniel Stredak.
Three directors below the Managing directors
The reorganization of the DFB had been discussed more intensively in the past few weeks. The association had confirmed talks with former world footballer Nadine Kessler (35), among others.
According to reports, it is about a managing director position and even more clearly the areas of responsibility of the former director Oliver Bierhoff, who was responsible for the national teams and academy until the association separated from him after the disappointing men’s World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Another spot for women’s soccer
The women’s national team also failed in the group phase at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer. DFB general secretary Heike Ullrich announced on ZDF on Sunday that the association was also looking for someone to direct sports in women’s football. A third director, also below a managing director in the hierarchy, is being sought to succeed Rudi Völler. The former national coach will hold the position of responsible for the men’s senior national team until after the 2024 European Championships in Germany.
coach at three Bundesliga clubs
In the past, Hannes Wolf coached the Bundesliga clubs VfB Stuttgart, Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen. The coach of the year 2017 is valued at the DFB and, as the champion coach of Borussia Dortmund’s youth team, also has a great deal of experience in the youth field.