For ex-national player Günter Netzer, Rudi Völler is “a very good choice” as the new national team director of the German Football Association.
“But he can’t turn it around alone. No one will be so stupid as to ask it of him. He alone cannot save Germany,” said the 78-year-old European champion from 1972 and world champion from 1974 at the “Ball des Sports” in Frankfurt. “The team has to work on itself, the coach has to bring that together and the environment has to be right: then good preparation for the EM 2024 in Germany can lead to success, then maybe it can work.”
The DFB team had already been eliminated in the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar. Nevertheless, Netzer trusts the team of national coach Hansi Flick to fight for the title at the home European Championship. “Yes, we have a highly talented team,” he said. “But you saw at the World Cup that that’s not enough. There has to be the right attitude about the whole matter. Something was missing, they are all talented.”
The longtime television expert and commentator lives in Switzerland and has largely retired from public life. “At some point I decided to change my life and no longer appear in public,” said Netzer. That was a very good decision almost ten years ago. He made an exception for the “Ball des Sports”.
