Poor Title Defence

Germany travelled to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in USA as title holders and European Championship runners-up. The Germans were unified in the same team at the finals for the first time since reunification.

On the one hand there were World Cup winners such as Bodo Illgner, Andreas Brehme, Jürgen Kohler, Guido Buchwald, Andreas Möller, Thomas Häßler, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Lothar Matthäus, Andreas Köpke, Rudi Völler, Thomas Bertold and Jürgen Klinsmann and on the other there were players from the eastern part of the country such as Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten. The World Cup was to be hosted for the first time in a developing football country. For the first time in its history a penalty shoot-out was needed to decide the destiny of the gold FIFA trophy. In the end Brazil took their fourth title after overcoming Italy in the final played in the legendary Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. Germany’s own hopes of winning a fourth World Cup were destroyed in the quarterfinals.

Germany easily won the opening match 1-0 against Bolivia in Chicago’s Soldier Field Stadium. A Klinsmann strike in the 61st minute was enough. Back in Chicago only a little later, the Germans then drew 1-1 with Spain. A Klinsmann goal (48th min) now only earned them a draw. The third encounter, which was played in temperatures of over 40 degrees centigrade in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, saw Berti Vogts’ side defeat South Korea 3-2. Klinsmann secured Germany’s safe passage in the round of the last 16 by providing the team’s first and third goals in the 12th and 37th minutes respectively. Their return to Chicago saw “Klinsi” find the back of the net to put Germany 2-1 up against Belgium. The match ended in another 3-2 win. Klinsmann was unable to score in the World Cup quarterfinals and Germany made a fool of themselves when losing 2-1 to Bulgaria. It had been a poor title defence.

For Klinsmann, the World Cup was sandwiched between the triumph at the 1990 finals in Italy (7 games, 3 goals) and his farewell tournament in France in 1998 (5 games, 3 goals). The FIFA World Cup winner wore the No. 18 shirt on all three occasions and was handed the captain’s armband for his farewell finals. He is ranked 83rd behind Michael Ballack but before the current Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on “Vanity Fair’s” list of the 100 most important Germans, The man from Stuttgart, who held the nation’s highest coaching position from 2004 to 2006, is also 18th on the “Sport Bild” magazine’s rankings of the 60 most influential persons in German football. He is between the German Football Associations’ (DFB) Director of Football Oliver Bierhoff and Peter Peters, the vice chairman of the Bundesliga’s governing body.

A life between bread rolls and footballs

Jürgen Klinsmann was born in Göppingen on 30 July 1964 and grew up amidst a large family of bakers. “Klinsi” discovered his love of football at the age of eight. “I was obsessed with football as a child. All I wanted to do was to score goals, day and night.” Klinsi started out as a footballer for his local TB Gingen club before going on to play for SC Geislingen, Stuttgarter Kickers and VfB Stuttgart. His dad Siegfried Klinsmann took over a bakery in the Stuttgart suburb of Botnang when Klinsi was 14. The family elders decided Jürgen should do an apprenticeship as a baker and his life proceeded to oscillate between bread rolls and footballs.

It was at this time that the father wrote the following words in the family album for his son: “Being an Olympian means, fighting fairly, being modest in victory, having no envy in defeat and possessing a pure mind. These are the hopes of your father and fellow sportsman, Siegfried Klinsmann.”

Jürgen Klinsmann later described his relationship with the ball as being: “It helped me let off steam when I was a kid. I got home from school and bashed the ball against the garage door. It gave me an inner strength. It was as if I was at one with the ball. When there was trouble at school, I sat on my bench dreaming about how great practice was going to be later in the evening. I knew the teachers could do me no harm.” Klinsmann was brought up to be a hard worker. He himself expressed it as follows: “I’d like to get the maximum from everything so that I can be successful. That’s the way I am. My parents have been highly influential, especially my father. He always said to me: If you’re going to do something then do it 100 per cent. And be convinced of what you are doing, don’t doubt your way of doing things. It’s a philosophy I got from my father, also my single-mindedness. My father worked in the bakery every morning making proper pretzels, cakes and bread rolls. He always said that quality was the most important thing. You’ve got to expect yourself to provide quality. And it’s something I want to do too.”

Klinsmann became a baker and he made it into professional football. His ports of call were VfB Stuttgart, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur. And he collected titles wherever he went. To top it all he also wore a Germany jersey for ten years. He was a member of both the German Football Association’s (DFB) team that won the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and the same year’s European Championship side. He added a World Cup winners medal to his collection at his first attempt. A European Championship runners-up medal followed two years later. After the World Cup disaster in USA, the FIFA World Cup winner led Berti Vogts’ German team to the European title in England in 1996. Klinsmann had therefore won all the major titles as a player. His 108 caps (47 goals) is second only to Lothar Matthäus.

Matthäus: Jürgen is an egoist

Klinsmann became the ninth person in the history of the DFB to take over the reins of the national team. Many people pinned their hopes on him as head coach in the lead up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Germany but others considered him to be inexperienced. He saw his appointment as being a great honour. Thoughts of turning down the job never crossed his mind even though he lived in California.

“No, I just couldn’t. I would have regretted it all my life. I would have always had the nagging feeling of having run away from a challenge. Even worse than that would have been the feeling of being a failure in my own eyes,” he said. Upon being given the job he stated, “I want the title, I want to win the World Cup with Germany.” No other coach would have dared to be so audacious. Klinsmann did a lot of chopping and changing within the DFB. He explained at the start that he did not want to leave a single stone unturned. Runners-up at the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ with Rudi Völler at the helm, the team that then failed to progress past the group stage of UEFA EURO 2004™ eventually placed third at the 2006 “Summer Fairy Tale” FIFA World Cup™ under Klinsmann’s guidance.

Newspaper columnist Lothar Matthäus once explained the secret behind “Klinsi”, the sunny boy as being: “Jürgen is an egoist - and I mean that positively. I would love to be able to act in the same way in some situations. You have to be an egoist to achieve things. Jürgen is able to assert himself to the full regardless of the consequences.” Project 2006 over and Klinsmann disappeared back to his American wife Debbie and his children in the anonymity offered by Los Angeles. After a two year break he took on Project Bayern Munich, where he is aiming to win trophies with new innovative methods for the first time as a club coach.