Matthias Sammer
February 1, 2008
Advertisement
Jürgen Klinsmann is taking over at Bayern Munich. Do you think things will stay the same?"
I told my friends I thought Klinsmann was one of the favourites. I looked at the decision-makers and saw how important it is to find the right person for the job. It's not a surprise. I also think it's good to have a German coach at Germany's top club. I can't wait to see his training methods. He will have difficulties. He's never worked in the day to day life at a club. How will he solve the problems? And how will he let the strong structure at Bayern influence his work? It's going to be interesting. But i'm glad we'll have a German coach at Bayern.
So you think this decision is logical? It's the logical consequence. He meets the demands. Jürgen Klinsmann is one of the only people that can think like the top bosses at Bayern. Bayern are taking on the least possible risk with the greatest opportunity. What's it like when you take your son to the local football pitch? I love taking him down there, when I have time to do it. The structures are in place for kids to play. But sometimes they don't know what they should be doing. nd they don't know how to get organised. Street football: 3 against 3, 4 gainst 4, 5 against 5 has everything you need to know about football. But they don't play like that. We have to encourage kids to start playing again. We used to play football all day out on the street. We used to organise urselves but that's not the case today. Why don't they do it. What's so special about street football. We didn't encourage them enough. That's why we are making more football ptches. Uwe Seeler once told me that when he sees young kids out practicing headers they're always from other countries. He says the German kids are only worried about the way their hair looks. Is it really like that?" These are drastic but important points. He's worried that kids aren't learning the basics. Shooting skills, inside of the foot, outside and so on and of course heading. You have to teach kids properly. These things are no longer done. So he's right. Can the coach do all these things? The coach is the key. Coaches leave lasting impressions on kids. They decide what direction they take. The quality of the coach decides what kind of talent we have in the future. The problem is there aren't that many good coaches. The coaches in the Bundesliga also get better the longer they work. Sammer has stated that former
Germany players are not going to automatically be on the fast track to getting a coaching certificate.
You are the youngest coach to ever win the Bundesliga. You did your coaching certificate in 6 weeks. You couldn't do that today. Why not? Because it's counterproductive. Playing football and teaching football are two different jobs. Just think about a piano player who is brilliant at playing the piano. But can this person teach others how to play the piano. That's adifferent question. You have to learn how to do it. Do you think Germany can recreate the spirit of 96 this summer ? When you look at the conditions then we're definitely in a position to say we want to win. That's the goal. We don't have to discuss it. We have to make sure we're prepared. We have a lot of highly qualified people in the coaching team. If you look at it that way then the Euro has actually already started. But are they as good as in 96? We'll find out at the tournament. The squad have a lot of things going for them. I hope that everyone is physically in the right state. You have to be in that
position to get in the right frame of mind. There is room to improve. I hope they can prove that this is a great team. In 2002 you said the worst thing was that you weren't able to play any more. Of course that's true. When you think about it as a kid you grew up playing in the yard or in a club or at school. We had the time of our lives. Playing
football was fantastic. Then your hobby becomes a job and you live your emotions on the pitch and have to deal with losing. It's beautiful but the problem is that the players who are playing now don't realise that when the stop it won't be so beautiful.
So you think this decision is logical? It's the logical consequence. He meets the demands. Jürgen Klinsmann is one of the only people that can think like the top bosses at Bayern. Bayern are taking on the least possible risk with the greatest opportunity. What's it like when you take your son to the local football pitch? I love taking him down there, when I have time to do it. The structures are in place for kids to play. But sometimes they don't know what they should be doing. nd they don't know how to get organised. Street football: 3 against 3, 4 gainst 4, 5 against 5 has everything you need to know about football. But they don't play like that. We have to encourage kids to start playing again. We used to play football all day out on the street. We used to organise urselves but that's not the case today. Why don't they do it. What's so special about street football. We didn't encourage them enough. That's why we are making more football ptches. Uwe Seeler once told me that when he sees young kids out practicing headers they're always from other countries. He says the German kids are only worried about the way their hair looks. Is it really like that?" These are drastic but important points. He's worried that kids aren't learning the basics. Shooting skills, inside of the foot, outside and so on and of course heading. You have to teach kids properly. These things are no longer done. So he's right. Can the coach do all these things? The coach is the key. Coaches leave lasting impressions on kids. They decide what direction they take. The quality of the coach decides what kind of talent we have in the future. The problem is there aren't that many good coaches. The coaches in the Bundesliga also get better the longer they work. Sammer has stated that former
Germany players are not going to automatically be on the fast track to getting a coaching certificate.
You are the youngest coach to ever win the Bundesliga. You did your coaching certificate in 6 weeks. You couldn't do that today. Why not? Because it's counterproductive. Playing football and teaching football are two different jobs. Just think about a piano player who is brilliant at playing the piano. But can this person teach others how to play the piano. That's adifferent question. You have to learn how to do it. Do you think Germany can recreate the spirit of 96 this summer ? When you look at the conditions then we're definitely in a position to say we want to win. That's the goal. We don't have to discuss it. We have to make sure we're prepared. We have a lot of highly qualified people in the coaching team. If you look at it that way then the Euro has actually already started. But are they as good as in 96? We'll find out at the tournament. The squad have a lot of things going for them. I hope that everyone is physically in the right state. You have to be in that
position to get in the right frame of mind. There is room to improve. I hope they can prove that this is a great team. In 2002 you said the worst thing was that you weren't able to play any more. Of course that's true. When you think about it as a kid you grew up playing in the yard or in a club or at school. We had the time of our lives. Playing
football was fantastic. Then your hobby becomes a job and you live your emotions on the pitch and have to deal with losing. It's beautiful but the problem is that the players who are playing now don't realise that when the stop it won't be so beautiful.
Advertisement