Ex-coach Klinsmann hopeful for Americans
Five-plus years since Jurgen Klinsmann’s tenure as coach of the U.S. men’s national team came to an end, the German legend remains a compelling curiosity in American soccer circles.
As a player, Klinsmann won the 1990 World Cup. As a coach, he steered Germany to third place in 2006. He then guided the United States out of a difficult group at the 2014 World Cup and to the semifinals of the 2016 Copa América. Known for his unconventional tactics, fitness demands and roster choices, he was fired early in a 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign that ended with the Americans missing out on a trip to Russia.
Klinsmann returned to the German Bundesliga — where he coached powerhouse Bayern Munich from 2008 to 2009 — to lead Hertha Berlin in November 2019, but he stepped down the following February, citing a lack of trust from the club. The 57-year-old does see himself returning to the sidelines, though, even if he has spent just 10 weeks coaching since November 2016.
“Definitely I will go back into coaching when the right opportunity comes along, if it’s a national team or if it’s a club team,” Klinsmann said in an interview. “But I have no hurry because I’m fulfilled with other things that I do at the moment. I will be in Qatar [at the World Cup] working for BBC, working for FIFA, so I’ll see a lot of games, and then hopefully by then covid is completely gone, and then it’s maybe a good time to jump back into it.”
Speaking Wednesday in Washington, where he’d traveled for Bayern’s exhibition win over D.C. United, Klinsmann offered his expertise on the upcoming Bundesliga campaign, United’s appointment of Wayne Rooney as coach, the state of the U.S. team and his pick to win this fall’s World Cup.
Question: Let’s start with the upcoming Bundesliga season, with Bayern coming off its 10th straight title. What does that kind of sustained dominance mean for the league?
Answer: In Germany, we wish Bayern the best. It’s probably the biggest club in the world in terms of financial resources, in terms of independence, because they have no debt. So they deserve all the compliments in the world for how they do business and how they have achieved all these titles. Now, on the other hand, all soccer fans in Germany wish for a more dramatic title race. Even if Bayern at the end wins it, at least [have it] be two or three or four points, not more. Make it dramatic until the very end. So that’s our big hope, because otherwise it’s too boring.
Question: As U.S. coach, you made a point of encouraging players to test themselves at the highest level. Now, there are myriad Americans playing for top-tier clubs in the UEFA Champions
League. What do you make of that progression?
Answer: Well, I always said that if you get the opportunity, give it a shot. And if it doesn’t work out the way you hoped — you take a case like Ricardo Pepi [a forward struggling to score for Germany’s Augsburg] — there’s nothing wrong with coming back and playing in MLS. But the fact that those players, like Christian [Pulisic] or [Weston] McKennie or Tyler Adams, are playing in Champions League teams, that has never been the case before, and that’s thanks to their courage to give it a try, to try to break through it and work yourself through the ranks there. That gives them so much confidence, at the end of the day, to come back to the national team and showcase all that stuff that they learned.
Question: Heading into the World Cup, which U.S. players are you watching?
Answer: There are quite a few exciting players in there, but I just wish it will be a very, very good World Cup for Christian Pulisic, because the kid suffered a lot with not getting to play in Russia. That big, big disappointment, it really hurts him on the inside a lot. And he fought his way through the system in Europe. He threw himself in the ice-cold water and started swimming at [Germany’s] Dortmund. Then he made the move to [English power] Chelsea with no guarantees at all, because you go to Chelsea and there are 20 national team players stealing each other’s spots. But he’s done so well overall. I just hope that he uses that World Cup as his stage, that he says, “OK, it hurt enough watching the World Cup in Russia on TV — this is now my time.”
Question: Another player you brought into the U.S. team was defender John Brooks, who has been phased out under Gregg Berhalter despite still getting regular minutes in the Bundesliga. What are your thoughts?
Answer: Obviously it’s Gregg’s decision how he puts the puzzle together and how he builds his roster and how he wants to play. But the one thing that [Brooks] might have that other players maybe don’t have is he knows how to play different opponents, different countries, different mentalities, cultural backgrounds. The international picture is a very important point of the World Cup. It’s not a domestic competition at all, so you need to be really aware of what’s going on in the other countries. I think John has all those kind of cards in his pocket, but obviously the choice is down to Gregg and his preferences. But I hope that still the door is a bit open for John to jump on the train.
Question: To discuss the World Cup more broadly, who is your pick to win it?
Answer: I think a lot of European big nations, like Spain, are in transition a bit. It’s a disaster that Italy didn’t qualify, because Italy would have been among the favorites right away. Then you obviously have France around [Kylian] Mbappe, but historically whoever won the last World Cup will not win the next one, so I count them out [laughs]. Then Germany, we have so many question marks around this generation of players. They have quality to go far. Do they have the hunger? Do they have the willingness? That’s all to be seen. For me, personally, watching the South American qualifiers closely, I would rank Brazil first and Argentina second. Question: And why’s that?
Answer: Argentina is extremely, extremely hungry for that World Cup because it might be Messi’s last one — probably it is. That team will do everything they can to give Messi this trophy. But the quality that over the last couple of years Brazil developed, they matured a lot and they kept the same coach [Tite, in charge since 2016], so there was no turbulence anymore on the managing side.