As a player, Michael Preetz became a real club legend at Hertha BSC, as he is still the Old Lady’s record goalscorer in the German top flight with 84 Bundesliga goals. However, in the course of his subsequent managerial career, the ex-national player’s reputation among Hertha supporters was noticeably damaged, as he was blamed for dramatic undesirable developments in the squad.
Michael Preetz is now back in German professional football and in January he was hired as managing director of the third division club MSV Duisburg, for whom he also hunted for goals as a player for two seasons in the 1990s.
What I remember most from the last years of his time as Hertha managing director was the complete misunderstanding with Jürgen Klinsmann. Accompanied by huge media interest, Preetz brought the former national coach and head coach of FC Bayern to Berlin in November 2019, before the collaboration ended in February 2020 when Klinsmann fled Berlin and Germany.
To this day, the 56-year-old has not forgotten the completely screwed-up chapter with Hertha BSC and Jürgen Klinsmann, who subsequently and publicly accused Preetz of serious management errors.
Preetz categorically rules out signing Klinsmann again
“Of all the Hertha coaches during my tenure, Klinsmann was the biggest disillusionment. The fact remains that I have not had any contact with him since his legendary departure from Hertha. And I also have no increased need to change anything,” Preetz clarified in the interview with the “Sport Bild”. The tablecloth between the two former Hertha protagonists is and will continue to be cut.
Preetz then immediately made it clear that Klinsmann, as the person in charge at MSV Duisburg, would no longer be an option for him as head coach under any circumstances: “The world would have to end before then.”
MSV Duisburg is in a relegation zone in the 3rd league, but has picked up ten points from eight games since the start of the second half of the season.