Rudi Völler returns to the German Football Association. The 62-year-old former international, who became world champion with West Germany in 1990, will start as director of the national team on 1 February. Völler worked as technical director at Bayer Leverkusen until last season and has had his hands free ever since
The DFB has now seized that opportunity to bring back the man who was already employed as national coach between 2000 and 2004. At the 2002 World Cup, Germany performed above expectations and only had to bow to Brazil in the final. The European Championship two years later became a fiasco: after draws against the Netherlands and Latvia, the elimination followed after a defeat against a B-team of the Czech Republic.
Rudi Völler’s profile
After that, Völler was briefly a trainer at AS Roma and Leverkusen (on an interim basis), before he was technical director at the BayArena for a while. At the end of last year, he was already appointed to a council that has to pull the German national team out of the doldrums after two failed World Cups in a row. And preferably a bit quickly, because Germany will be organizing the European Championship in a year and a half.
Völler will guide the national team, and he is looking forward to it. The former world champion commented, “I have had wonderful times here as a national coach. I take on this new challenge with gratitude, passion and great motivation. We must now be the first to do the groundwork for a successful European Championship in 2024. We have the players for that. Now we want to form a close-knit team again, a strong-willed and sympathetic national team.”
National coach Hansi Flick is also enthusiastic. He said, “Rudi is a great player in German football. With his style and successes, he has enthused fans as a player, trainer and director. Precisely because of his experience with the national team and Bayer Leverkusen, he is the right man for the challenges ahead. My coaching staff and I are looking forward to the joint journey to next year’s European Championships.”
