“He is sensationally good”
Sandro Wagner has one thing ahead of his new boss Julian Nagelsmann: an international match on the sidelines with the national team. Against France, the 35-year-old assisted interim coach Rudi Völler in the 2-1 win in Dortmund in September. In his first few days in America, ex-national striker Wagner, who was Nagelsmann’s player at TSG Hoffenheim, made a real impression on the new national coach.
“He is sensationally good, incredibly hard-working, structured,” said the DFB head coach about Wagner. The chemistry between boss and assistant – both born in 1987 – is obviously right before the premiere on Saturday (9 p.m. / RTL) against the USA in Hartford. Nagelsmann also likes Wagner’s “cheeky sayings in all directions”. His assistant coach manages to maintain the necessary distance from former teammates and still be relaxed. For example, Wagner once played with Thomas Müller (34) at FC Bayern or Oliver Baumann (33) in Kraichgau.
During training in Foxborough before the US premiere (Saturday, 9 p.m.), the assistant increasingly took on more tasks on the pitch. Nagelsmann’s long-time assistant coach Benjamin Glück, whom the boss brought with him to the DFB, is more of an observer and personal confidant of the national coach. Wagner relieves his boss of detailed issues, including switching on the lawn sprinklers at the training ground at the exact time. “He takes care of everything organizationally for me,” said Nagelsmann. Nagelsmann made it clear that only he would do the media work. He wants to sit on this stage himself and not Wagner, who gave up his job as a “ZDF” expert for his new role.
The national coach only has one concern. That Wagner himself soon wants to become a head coach somewhere again and that the collaboration is therefore over. The Munich team led SpVgg Unterhaching into the 3rd league this summer. Afterwards he actually moved to the DFB as assistant to Hannes Wolf at the U20. Maybe Wagner also wants to revive an old DFB tradition. Assistants have later become national coaches themselves six times, most recently Nagelsmann’s predecessor Hansi Flick.
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