The Germany national football team manager (German: Bundestrainer, literally 'Federal Coach' or 'Association Coach') is a position created in 1926 and first held by Otto Nerz. The German team began playing matches in 1908, but for 18 years it had no manager. Instead a selection committee chose the team.
Ten different men have occupied the post since its inception, all of whom are German. Seven of the ten have previously played for the national team, the exceptions being Nerz, Erich Ribbeck, and current incumbent Joachim Löw. Many of the managers previously served as assistant to their predecessor; each of the three managers after Nerz had worked under the previous incumbent, and the current manager, Löw, was assistant to Jürgen Klinsmann from 2004 to 2006. More recently, though, the trend has been towards former players with little in the way of coaching experience.
From 1936 to 1998, the team had just five managers, each of whom won a major trophy, with Helmut Schön (1964–1978) winning two. The last ten years has seen four different managers in the role.
The title Bundestrainer has been in use since 1950 - prior to 1942 the role was titled Reichstrainer (Imperial Coach). Franz Beckenbauer and Rudi Völler could not be titled Bundestrainer, due to a lack of coaching qualifications, so were titled Teamchef (Team Leader). Their assistants, Horst Köppel/Holger Osieck and Michael Skibbe respectively, were the official Bundestrainer during this time.
Famous quotes containing the words germany, national, football, team and/or manager:
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”
—Marlene Dietrich (1904–1992)
“There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people’s safety and greatness.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
—Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nothing could his enemies do but it rebounded to his infinite advantage,—that is, to the advantage of his cause.... No theatrical manager could have arranged things so wisely to give effect to his behavior and words. And who, think you, was the manager? Who placed the slave-woman and her child, whom he stooped to kiss for a symbol, between his prison and the gallows?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)