The discussion about the number one goal in the German national football team has been heating up for weeks. Now Uli Hoeneß spoke out again on the matter and followed up with clear criticism of national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s communication.
The honorary president of FC Bayern clearly attacked the national coach because of his public handling of the goalkeeping issue before the World Cup.
In the “Spiegel” top-level conversation, Hoeneß made it clear that he considers Julian Nagelsmann’s information policy and way of conducting conversations to be problematic: “That wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair,” said the 74-year-old, referring to the supposed determination of Oliver Baumann as number one in the DFB goal.
Because it is now clear that Manuel Neuer should be the starting goalkeeper between the posts again at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA. The impending return of the 2014 world champion has been causing heated debates for days, also because Baumann completed the entire qualification as number one.
However, in terms of sport, Hoeneß was clearly behind Neuer. On the sidelines of Munich’s championship celebration at Marienplatz a few days ago, he declared that the Bayern captain was still “the best” for him. At the same time, he emphasized again that he felt sorry for Baumann in this situation.
Hoeneß hopes for “Bayern block” at the 2026 World Cup
But the Bayern patron’s criticism went much further. Hoeneß fundamentally criticized Nagelsmann’s work in the past few months.
“You would have had to let a team play together three, four, five times to make them a unit,” he said. His statements are expressly not a personal attack, but rather “factual, professional criticism”.
Hoeneß is also critical of the quality of the current DFB squad. The team is “good, but not world class”. What is particularly incomprehensible to him is Joshua Kimmich’s role in the national team. While Kimmich impresses in the central midfield at FC Bayern, Nagelsmann often uses him as a right-back.
“I would definitely not burn Joshua, who played an outstanding season in FC Bayern’s midfield,” explained Hoeneß clearly. For him, Kimmich has to play in the center in order to fully utilize his leadership qualities. The Bayern honorary president sees a “Bayern block” with Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlović in midfield as the ideal line-up.