Before his debut as national coach, Julian Nagelsmann dispelled a German football myth.
“The ‘You have to be eleven friends’ is cheese,” said the 36-year-old before his first international match with the national team today (9 p.m./RTL) in Hartford against the USA. It became clear that Nagelsmann believes that team building measures are unnecessary.
“I can’t create an atmosphere with team building. It’s only possible together anyway, football is a team sport,” said the DFB head coach when asked how he wanted to create a good atmosphere for the national team, which has recently been mostly unsuccessful.
His recipe for success is successful football. “We can only create an atmosphere if we play attractive, aggressive football,” emphasized the former Bayern coach.
Nagelsmann compared his team to a school class. Not everyone is friends there either. You are friends with five to six other children, with five to six the relationship is normal and “with five to six you don’t want to drink cocoa at break,” said Nagelsmann. Even with a good mood in the team, “not everyone still has to say goodnight” at the end of the day, said the national coach.