The Klinsmann dive [noun]
- a joyous and ironic celebration of a goal
- a turbulent, unsuccessful period of managerial control
Jürgen Klinsmann. Is there a better example of Anglo-German difference?
To Brexiting Britain, he represents the very best of modern Germany – an antidote to the tired, jackbooted tropes that often march through the tabloid press. A supremely talented forward who blazed a trail through the Premier League upon his arrival at Spurs, having already won hearts and minds with memorable performances at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups. A refreshing and attack-minded coach, who led an excited host nation to within a Fabio Grosso scream of a home World Cup final. A genial pundit whose easy camaraderie with Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer added further to the pleasure of the thrilling ride through the 2018 World Cup.
To German fans, he does not have the same aura. While undoubtedly one of the Nationalmannschaft’s best players of recent decades, he is not necessarily a class apart from other World Cup finalists, such as Michael Ballack, Rudi Völler or Bastian Schweinsteiger. As for the 2006 Sommermärchen (‘summer fairytale’): the subsequent success of his then assistant Jogi Löw suggests that Klinsmann may not have been the lead author of that story, even if his name was on the cover. Particurlarly when that achievement is set in the context of his two disastrous forays into German club management, at Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin.
His stint in Bavaria, during the 2008-9 season, was characterised by dressing room grumbles and an underperforming Rekordmeister – Klinsmann left 5 games before Wolfsburg won their one and only title. If the football wasn’t disastrous (Bayern were third when he left the club), players’ accounts suggest that this was despite, rather than because of, Klinsmann. Former German captain Philip Lahm says that the players used to meet on their own before games to discuss tactics, because Klinsmann didn’t provide that kind of instruction.
His ‘Hertha period’ will surely find more space in his autobiography than it does in the timeline of his life. A whirlwind 10 weeks, during which he managed to win over and then spectacularly alienate the Hertha fans, was packed with incident. His public appearances throughout his tenure – and after, including a disastrous video shared on Facebook – were characteristically lofty and imbued with the West Coast idealism that grates so much with his detractors. Perhaps only Klinsmann could, upon entering the dugout for his first home game in charge, pull his smartphone out of his pocket and photograph the crowd. As in Munich, his footballing achievements were far from catastrophic. 3 wins and 3 draws from 9 games have steered Hertha towards calmer waters, if not towards the safety of the mid-table doldrums.
Rather than on the pitch, it was in the boardroom where “Klinsi” burned his bridges. Pressing for a contract extension beyond the end of the season at such an early stage was inevitable, but it was also premature given Hertha’s plight and did not exactly curry favour. And it was his push for greater autonomy within the club that made the end inevitable. Ironically, Klinsmann wanted Hertha to move to an ‘English model’, where a single manager holds almost all of the power on sporting matters within a club. While perhaps not unreasonable in the abstract, it runs firmly counter to German footballing orthodoxy and – given the context in which he was operating, not least that Hertha had the highest net January spend of any European club – underlined that Klinsmann hadn’t read the boardroom as well as he might have. That the players viewed him more as cheerleader than chess grandmaster – several have subsequently bemoaned the lack of tactical instruction – meant that losing him wasn’t too hard to take.
It seems unlikely that Klinsmann will get another job in Germany given the circumstances of his departure. Or that baker’s son from Botnang will want another role in the land of his birth. If and when he does restart his management career, he’ll need both results on the pitch and more astute political manoeuvring off it to avoid another career belly-flop.
Gegenpress 