After less than a year, Jürgen Klinsmann has been fired as South Korea national coach again. It is the next episode in a coaching career full of disappointments.
Jürgen Klinsmann has always been known throughout his coaching career as someone who wanted to do things differently. A prime example is the story that he allegedly had Buddha statues erected on the roofs of the FC Bayern Munich training ground. Klinsmann himself denied this many years later, but he couldn’t get rid of this story. Especially since he always causes trouble at his stations. Like now in South Korea, where he didn’t even last a year.
Big coaching team, protests, expulsion
After the disappointing Asian Cup, where it was enough to qualify for the semi-finals (defeat against Jordan), but the performance of the top favorite was below average, the criticism of Klinsmann became increasingly louder. There were even protests in front of the main building of the South Korean Football Association (KFA), the fans no longer wanted the 59-year-old as national coach. And with him also many companions.
Klinsmann lived in the USA for a long time and apparently became convinced that a coaching staff should be larger than usual in football. And so, like his predecessor Paulo Bento, he continued to work with assistant coach Michael Kim, but also installed former Bundesliga professional Du-ri Cha as technical advisor, Andreas Köpke as goalkeeping coach, Paolo Stringara and Andreas Herzog as assistant coaches and Werner Leuthard as fitness trainer. But apparently a lot doesn’t help much.
Jürgen Klinsmann with his large coaching team
“Behind people’s expectations retarded”
After Klinsmann’s dismissal, KFA President Chung Mong-Gyu hardly spoke well of him. He has “Failing to demonstrate the managerial and leadership skills expected of a national team coach in areas such as tactics, people management, work ethic and other areas required to make the team competitive“, he said. Besides, “Klinsmann’s attitude and competitiveness as a head coach fell short of people’s expectations.“
Klinsmann himself thanked the fans on social media for their support and spoke of a “incredible journey over the past twelve months“. While he apparently leaves in peace, South Korea almost seems happy to be rid of him – at least that’s the impression based on the protests and statements. And it wouldn’t be that surprising, after all, it was similar at most of his previous stops.
Fiasco with repercussions at Hertha BSC
Klinsmann was out of a job for three years before he was hired by the South Koreans. Before that, he gave Hertha BSC two and a half months as coach that the club will not soon forget. The investor at the time, Lars Windhorst, brought him in as a member of the supervisory board, and a short time later he became a trainer. After just 76 days, Klinsmann announced his resignation with a Facebook video. He had previously announced that he wanted to lead the Berliners back into the Champions League in the next few years; in the winter, Hertha signed four players for 76 million euros.
Klinsmann not only left the capital city a sporting shambles, but also the so-called “Klinsmann protocols”. He analyzed the Hertha squad on 22 pages – but it was more of a reckoning than an analysis. “The fact that the diaries and this work report ultimately became public was of course very damaging to me. This was an internal report that was never intended for the media. But he was honest“Klinsmann said later. And: “Everything that was in there was true.“
Summer fairy tale with Germany, disappointment with the USA
Even before this 76-day fiasco, Klinsmann had had to wait three years for a job as a coach. In his last position as national coach of the USA to date, his longest stint was over five years, but he also caused one of the darkest moments in US football. In November 2016 he was released after two defeats in World Cup qualifying against Mexico (1:2) and in Costa Rica (0:4) – after he managed to turn things around, but in the end he was missing a point for participation in the World Cup 2018 in Russia. It was the only time the United States was absent from a world tournament since 1990.
Jürgen Klinsmann was eliminated from the 2014 World Cup by Marc Wilmots’ Belgian in the round of 16.
His time as US coach also meant that he made football in the United States more popular than ever before. As in his two years as national coach of the German national team, Klinsmann managed to get the masses behind the team; with his positive, optimistic nature, he was the figurehead of a team on the move. And Germany will always associate him with the 2006 World Cup, which became a football festival thanks to him.
As is currently the case, the mood was at its lowest point and the DFB team was far from its previous successes. Then Klinsmann came along, started the tournament furiously and got the whole of Germany in the World Cup mood. This was followed by moments of celebration such as Oliver Neuville’s late goal against Poland (1-0), but also deep sadness in the semi-final against Italy (0-2). But it ended with victory in the game for third place and a big celebration with over 500,000 fans in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Klinsmann gave Germany a summer fairy tale.
Hoeneß described Klinsmann’s employment as a “mistake”
FC Bayern wanted to write such a success story with him. Klinsmann took up the coaching position in 2008 with the extremely ambitious goal of “make every player better every day“. After less than eight months he had to leave again; Uli Hoeneß, who was chairman of the board at the time, described his attitude afterwards as “Mistake“. He is indeed “felt it was worth a try“But everything Hoeneß said in the years that followed made it clear that the disappointment in Munich was great.
Hoeneß explained, among other things, that they were “In the end, it’s not the results that matter, but the relationship with the team“. And he complained about Klinsmann’s way of working. “We bought computers there for tens of thousands of euros. He showed the professionals in epic detail how we want to play. Mind you want“, said Hoeneß, who sometimes referred to Klinsmann as “very good actor and a good seller of his person” referred to.
Munich’s then coach Jürgen Klinsmann (l.) with the then manager Uli Hoeneß
The former national player, who won the World Cup with Germany in 1990 and the European Championship in 1996, began his career as a coach with a summer fairy tale. But what followed in Munich, the USA, Berlin and South Korea was far from a fairy tale with a happy ending. There were a lot of horror stories.