Germany parted ways with coach Hansi Flick on Sunday a day after their 4-1 home loss to Japan in a friendly match, with the four-time world champions struggling for form ahead of the Euro 2024 tournament on home soil, the German Football Association (DFB) said.
Flick took over in 2021 but his team have managed four wins in their last 17 internationals, and they were also eliminated in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
“The bodies [of the DFB] shared the same view that the national team now needs a new impulse,” DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said in a statement. “With next year’s Euro in sight we need enthusiastic mood and confidence.”
Germany do not need to qualify for the Euros but have shown no sign of improvement following last year’s shock World Cup exit, and with German fans quickly running out of patience with their poor form, the DFB thought it was time to act. Germany are three-time European champions.
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The DFB’s sports director Rudi Völler will be in charge of their friendly against 2022 World Cup finalists France on Tuesday with a successor for Flick to be named soon.
“The most urgent thing is then to bring in a national team coach who at short notice can redirect and prepare our team for the big Euro tournament next year,” said Völler, who was national team coach from 2000-2004.
“We expect from them, as does the whole country, positive impulses. A coach who can lift our level to where we know and expect it to be.”
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