Yesterday I visited the website of the German newspaper my father used to work for, mainly to get its take on the swine flu. Instead, the "topic of the day" was the dismissal of Juergen Klinsmann, the now-former head coach of soccer club Bayern Munich.
Most followers of the German Bundesliga either love or hate Bayern; personally I don't care one way or the other. However, I have followed Klinsmann's short-lived (10 months) career with Bayern with great interest since his coaching style can be described with three letters: WTF. I was wondering from the beginning how long he was going to last.
Follow me below the fold to find out why Klinsmann is relevant.
When Juergen Klinsmann was an active player, I always enjoyed watching him; his goals were a thing of beauty. He also inspired one of my most favorite quotes of all times, uttered by a TV sports commentator during Klinsmann's time in Italy: "Ma che bella settimana per la bionda pantegana" ("What a beautiful week for the blond rat!").
However, when he married an American woman and moved to California, he turned into the kind of German immigrant that I find truly annoying: one who believes Americans are the best in the world at everything and we Germans totally suck and our only chance at being worth anything is to become as similar to Americans as we possibly can. Well, looks as though he was unable to convince the Bavarians.
Soccer fans got the first taste of Klinsmann the coach in 2004, when he took over the German national team. Very soon he became (in)famous for fixing what wasn't broken. The fans and sports press were wondering if hiring him had been such a good idea, especially since the first friendlies under his leadership turned out rather ugly. When it was time to publish the roster for the World Cup, he benched legendary goalie Oliver Kahn, a move that was questioned by many. It was similar to a rookie coach taking over the Lakers and removing Kobe Bryant from the regular rotation. Also, he insisted on a switch from a defensive to a more offensive playing style (kind of like to trying to transform the Spurs into the Suns). Another bone of contention: Klinsmann still lived in California, which made it next to impossible to observe his players on a regular basis.
The national team pleasantly surprised its fans by coming in third in the World Cup, doing much better than anyone had expected. Perhaps, people thought, Klinsmann was on to something after all. However, when his contract was up, he chose not to renew it and returned to California.
Speaking of World Cup, as I was watching the American coverage thereof, I often felt the strong urge to throw stuff at the TV. The American commentators couldn't help but admit that the preconceived ideas they had of Germans were inaccurate. Most of the Germans they encountered were fun to be around, polite, hospitable, and not neo-Nazis. How was that possible? Well, it had to be the influence of the Americanized Klinsmann, of course! By showing up once a month for a year and a half, a soccer coach had single-handedly managed to profoundly transform a nation of 80 million people. Yeah, right. Couldn't be that the Americans had been, like, wrong about Germans? Of course not.
Last summer, Bayern hired him as head coach, after his wife agreed to move to Munich with him. Immediately, he impressed the clubs board of directors with a presentation of his "concept," a new approach to coaching that he had developed by observing American high school coaches and fitness experts.
Right away, he closed down the clubhouse restaurant, from whose windows fans had been able to watch the team practice. Needless to say, that move pissed off a few people. In this context, one has to consider how pro sports team ownership works in Germany. Most sports clubs are membership-owned non-profit organizations, some of which run pro teams. Bayern's two pro teams (First and Third Bundesliga) were split off into a for-profit corporation, 90% of which belongs to the original club; the other 10% is owned by Adidas. Basically the amateur athletes own the pros. So it was not mere fans but part-owners who were told they could no longer observe their team while having a beer.
Next came the new fitness, wellness, and education center, which made headlines due to its expensive design and the Buddhist paraphernalia in it (while nearly everyone on the team is either Catholic or Muslim). Klinsmann decided his men should spend more time in the classroom and weightroom than on the soccer field. In time, Klinsmann intended to add English lessons as well. As he put it, he was going to make his men a little better each day.
Alas, soccer-wise things didn't go so well. This season, for the first time in many years, Bayern has not spent a single day at the top of the Bundesliga. Champions League and DFB Cup are already lost. The national championship is in jeopardy. Next year's eligibility for the Champions League, Bayern's biggest money maker, is in danger. The "concept" (whatever that is) does not seem to work.
The players came to despise the coach. Lukas Podolski, the national team's current leading goal scorer, spent the season warming the bench and is going back to his old team, Cologne, in the fall. In January, Landon Donovan, on loan from LA Galaxy, was presented to the team as the new rising star, and the coach insisted that he be given minutes in every game. Alas, the Munich players did not think he was Champions League material, and he went home a week early in March.
Yesterday, after a five-game losing streak, Klinsmann was fired. The board of directors presented the decision to the team and added, "There goes that excuse." A former coach came out of retirement to save the rest of the season (five games) and salvage the Champions League eligibility. While the fans believe it was about time, the sports pundits think Klinsmann should have been allowed to finish out the season. Well, it's the fans who own the team, and the owners want to see their team win.
Uwe Seeler, the Hamburg soccer legend from the '60s, had the following to say: "That's what you get when you expect Americans to teach us soccer."
Whenever foreign relations are discussed in America, there will be someone who says that our enemies "hate us because of our freedoms" and our friends want to be "led by us." Well, it looks as though the Bavarians do not wish they could all be California girls.