Former national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg spoke for the first time about her psychological problems after the German footballers’ exit from the World Cup and also admitted mistakes.
A feeling of pressure on the chest, panic attacks and insomnia were the result, said the 55-year-old in a ZDF interview published on Monday (November 20, 2023), in response to internal and public criticism: “I basically collapsed completely.”
The fears, the insecurity and the emptiness in her head became stronger and stronger – almost like “As if I had been unplugged“. The German Football Association announced at the beginning of September that Voss-Tecklenburg was ill.
Criticism of lectures by Voss-Tecklenburg
After a long stalemate, the DFB appointed Horst Hrubesch as interim coach for the German women, who had failed in the preliminary round of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The DFB terminated the contract with Voss-Tecklenburg, which runs until 2025, at the beginning of the month.
Voss-Tecklenburg had also recently attracted criticism because she gave two lectures even though she had not yet been reported as healthy again by the DFB at the time. “I then made the public appearances. In retrospect you can say: How stupid – mistake”said Voss-Tecklenburg.
Medical advice
She took vacation and the rest of the year’s vacation, “to get completely healthy, to simply use these weeks again, to come back, to be able to take part in life again”. A joint press release was not made at the time for various reasons.
“I was sick and I didn’t know how long this process would take. I realized that I just have to be there for myself now,” Voss-Tecklenburg said in the interview about the time before. You noticed: “My head is empty. I’m just crying. I’m not able to think constructively.” Her doctor’s advice was clear: to withdraw first in order to minimize the risk of depressive episodes.