Former DFB director Oliver Bierhoff fears a tough time before the start of the 2024 European Football Championship in his own country. Until then there will hardly be any euphoria. The former goalscorer apparently rates the German team’s chances of winning the European Championship very high.
“I’m more worried: How much desire does Germany have? What will happen? I fear that due to the geopolitical situation in the world, with all the issues, there will be little euphoria until shortly before the European Championship,” said Bierhoff in the podcast “Spielmacher – the EM talk with Sebastian Hellmann and 360Media”.
“But when the ball starts rolling, the Germans’ enthusiasm is quickly aroused,” said Bierhoff, who is counting on exactly that for the German team’s success: “I believe that a tournament like this can release energies. That things within one You can create a team that is even more special at a European Championship in your own country. If you’re far away from home, there’s more of a risk that you’ll get lost. But in your own country, everyone pulls themselves together. The quality is there there, to go far in the tournament, to achieve everything.”
The 55-year-old European champion from 1996 is counting on the national team to manage to arouse enthusiasm among the population at the tournament itself. “You have to give the fans hope and the belief that something can happen through actions like this, through a great goal, through a good start, maybe even through a first clear win in the first game. Then this energy spreads. Then “The joy also comes. This is then transferred to the team,” said Bierhoff, whose contract with the DFB was terminated after the 2022 World Cup preliminary round exit. He has been advising the NFL’s New England Patriots American football team since October.
DFB team: Bierhoff thinks Nagelsmann is “absolutely” a good choice
As Bierhoff further revealed, national coach Hansi Flick allegedly wanted to threaten to resign after the 2022 World Cup disaster in Qatar out of anger over Bierhoff’s departure from the DFB.
Flick said to him: “Oliver, I’ll fight it out, I’ll say this, I won’t go on without you.” But Bierhoff replied: “Hansi, that doesn’t make any sense, you have to keep doing it” – also with a view to the home European Championship in 2024. He, Bierhoff, would no longer have been able to help Flick in his “weakened position” after the World Cup anyway. he admitted.
“Hansi is a very clean character who is very loyal,” said Bierhoff about the coach, who was fired by the DFB in September. When Flick gave him the promise to take over the position of national coach as Joachim Löw’s successor in 2021, he said: “Oliver, I’ll do it – but you’re still doing it? We’ll do it together, you accompany me.” Flick knew: “I could have his back.”
When Bierhoff had to leave after the failed World Cup, Flick expressed his anger in a statement. “I really appreciated his statements, he was a bit conflicted about it,” said Bierhoff, “I saw that as a sign that he didn’t agree with the matter. He wanted to make it clear what value I had for him and the DFB had.”
The 55-year-old thinks Flick’s successor Julian Nagelsmann is “absolutely” a good choice: “I would have signed him too.” He laughed and put his chances of winning the European Championship at 66 percent. I’m actually always a realist. But when it comes to football and with the national team, I’m an optimist. He has already bought two tickets for the opening game against Scotland in Munich on June 14th: “I’m still a fan.”