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Waiting for Daum Voeller to coach German team through 2001
Posted: Sunday July 02, 2000 03:01 PM
COLOGNE, Germany (AP) -- Bayer Leverkusen's Christoph Daum, the overwhelming favorite among the public and soccer officials alike, was chosen on Sunday to lead the country's national team out of its deepest crisis in nearly two decades. But in an unexpected move at a five-hour special meeting, 1990 World Cup hero Rudi Voeller was the shock choice to fill the interim job for 10 months until Daum's contract with Leverkusen runs out. The compromise was hammered out after Leverkusen, with the Bundesliga season about to start, refused to give in to growing pressure to immediately release Daum from a contract that runs until June 30th, 2001. "This development is very surprising," admitted Voeller, Leverkusen's sports director. "But you can understand we can't give up Daum immediately." Taking part in the meeting were representatives from Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, the top two German clubs, along with the German soccer federation DFB. Munich vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge will also play a large role in guiding the club until Daum takes over. He was named the Mannschaft's first team manager in history as both of Germany's top clubs came under pressure to free up its top people amidst the crisis. The national team was last ousted in first round of a major tournament in 1984. At the Euro 2000, it scored just one goal and finished dead last in group play -- something that last happened in 1938. Voeller promised to guide the team in the spirit of Daum, who officially takes over June 1 when the Bundesliga season ends. "We've worked together daily -- I know his concepts," said Voeller. "This solution is definitely only for 10 months. We'll just have to see that it works with me and Rummenigge." Voeller, who doesn't have a coaching license, will have a coach at his side as he takes over from Erich Ribbeck, who resigned in humiliation after Germany's miserable showing at the Euro. Rummenigge will form a task force to find the interim coach, saying he would draw on the Bundesliga clubs who produce the national team players. In addition to the top two, that also includes Hertha Berlin and 1860 Munich. All the top clubs were apparently consulted by telephone at the meeting until a consensus was reached on the surprise solution. "There was a lot of telephone calls in the last 30 or 60 minutes," said Voeller. Daum, one of Germany's most respected coaches, captured league titles at VfB Stuttgart in 1992 and at Besiktas Istanbul 1995. He has coached Leverkusen since 1996, reviving a club that barely scraped by relegation and finishing no worse than third in the three seasons since. This year, Leverkusen tied Bayern Munich in points but lost the Bundesliga title on goal differential with a dramatic final-round loss. He is regarded as the right age to rebuild the Mannschaft with younger players. At Leverkusen, he enjoyed a reputation for playing innovative modern soccer while possessing the ability to motivate players. Daum made no secret of his desire to coach the national team as the pressure on Leverkusen grew to release him from his contract. "That has always been my goal," said Daum. Rummenigge pointed out that the national team's new leadership Mannschaft's new leader represent a generation change in German soccer since he is 44 and Voeller 40. Daum will try to rebuild a team that until recently has been soccer's most consistent major power. Germany is the only country to be a three-time winner of both the World Cup and European Championships. But the national team appears short on young German talent, and its still reeling from revelations that a clique of Bayern Munich players tried to have Ribbeck fired and replaced by veteran defender Lothar Matthäus on the eve of Euro 2000. Matthäus said defender Markus Babbel and midfielders Jens Jeremies, Dietmar Hamann and Mehmet Scholl approached him during a training camp in Spain at the end of May with the idea of him becoming coach at the expense of Ribbeck. Their idea was to have Matthäus use his close contacts with Franz Beckenbauer, an influential DFB vice president, to have Ribbeck removed and himself installed as coach. Matthäus, who wanted to play and not coach, refused. Daum had been expected to get the job as national coach, but the interim solution involving Voeller came as a complete surprise "There were a lot of telephone calls in the last 30 or 60 minutes of the meeting," admitted Voeller. Click here for a Christoph Daum factfile.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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