The decision was expected for a long time, but it is still an earthquake for German football. Julian Nagelsmann remains national coach DFB and gives the FC Bayern a rejection. The German champions had been trying to sign the former coach for a long time. What remains is a chaotic image on Säbener Strasse.
Nagelsmann, Bayern and the DFB
Let's briefly organize the chronology:
- In the summer of 2021, FC Bayern will terminate the young coach's contract with RB Leipzig for the record sum of 20 million euros. A football coach has never been more expensive in the history of football. Nagelsmann should shape a new era in Munich
- After a year and a half, this era is already over because the impatient bosses, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic and general director Oliver Kahn, see the season's goals in danger. In March 2023, Nagelsmann will be sacked in a controversial cloak-and-dagger move and replaced by Thomas Tuchel.
- The process turns out to be counterproductive for Salihamidzic and Kahn. Tuchel is under enormous pressure from the beginning and in the end only achieves the minimum goal of the Bundesliga title thanks to the help of Borussia Dortmund. The bosses have to go.
- Due to the power vacuum that has emerged at FC Bayern, the club is experiencing a transfer disaster. Star striker Harry Kane can be signed, but he is denied all the players wanted by Tuchel. The season starts with a squad that is too small
- Meanwhile, Nagelsmann replaces Hansi Flick, who failed in the DFB, and becomes the new national coach until the European Championship in his own country.
- Tuchel cannot stop the gradual decline of the team in Munich. Early exit from the cup, left behind in the league by Bayer Leverkusen. At the beginning of the year it was clear: Tuchel also had to leave at the end of the season
- At the same time, Nagelsmann caused a wave of euphoria ahead of the European Championship at home with his friendly victories against France and the Netherlands. The DFB wants to extend his contract beyond the Euro Cup
- At the same time, his name is mentioned again and again at FC Bayern. The coach, once fired, is the favorite, especially for the new management of the club around sporting director Max Eberl and sporting director Christoph Freund. But there is resistance. There are said to be skeptical voices, especially from the powerful supervisory board. According to club circles, former general manager Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is openly opposed to a renewal of the commitment
- Tuchel saves his reputation with the unexpected and surprising access to the Champions League semi-finals and preserves the possibility of a dignified farewell and the highest possible title
- Almost at the same time, Nagelsmann announced his decision: he would remain national coach.
Nagelsmann stays at the DFB: “Decision of the heart”
For FC Bayern it is a chronology of horror. Record champions seem clumsy and amateurish in this process. For Nagelsmann, however, it is a belated revenge for the undignified expulsion. He found out about his firing through the media during a brief ski trip.
It is a bitter defeat for Eberl, who took office last March, and for Freund, who has held the position since last September. The duo had nothing to do with the coaching change at the time, but now have to live with the consequences. A comeback campaign would be a clear sign that they are now in control of the club.
For Nagelsmann it was a “decision of the heart,” as he cited in a statement from the association. On the contrary, this means that a supposed decision for Bavaria would not be possible. Love happen. In the DFB, sporting director Rudi Völler and general manager Andreas Rettig fought hard to retain him. There was no such determined unity at Bayern.