Interviews
Photo: picture-alliance / dpa
Golz asks ... Ottmar Hitzfeld
Friday, December 16, 2005
The well known sports journalist Wolfgang Golz regularly asks prominent football players, managers, fans and experts about their expectations for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. On this occasion he is talking to Ottmar Hitzfeld.
First of all, Mr. Hitzfeld, the standard question in this series of interviews. Why will Germany win the 2006 World Cup?
Ottmar Hitzfeld: Germany will win the World Cup because of home advantage and the euphoric level of support in the country. Furthermore, the team has made great strides under Jürgen Klinsmann. And because I am an optimist!
What does the national coach have to do to ensure that the young players are not overwhelmed by this euphoria and excessive expectations?
You must not play down the euphoria. You need it to win games. And the team must raise its level of performance because individually we don't have the best team. Our team must be strong. That is the most important thing.
Where you are based has no effect on success.
Given the coming World Cup do you regret not having accepted the post as Germany's coach?
No. I considered it carefully. And it was definitely more difficult to say no than yes. However I have remained at the centre of things. I have worked with 'Premiere' as a pundit during the World Cup, the Bundesliga and the Champions League. I am better informed about football now than when I was a coach as I spent most of the time looking after the development of my own team.
What do you think of the criticism aimed at Jürgen Klinsmann's coaching methods and his living in the USA?
Jürgen is treading a new path. And he is not allowing himself to be influenced. When you are new to coaching you want to develop your own ideas. If you have been in the game for a long time you can make use of previous successes. Really there isn't that much that is new. A couple of new training methods. That's nothing. And as far as where he lives? I have always moved to where my job was. But things are different as a club coach. Otto Rehhagel won the European Championships without living in Greece.
Germany has always been feared because the players never gave up...
One of our strong points was giving our all. Living just for football, discipline, determination. That has gone now that club sides only have 20 per cent of German players. For too long we stuck to man-to-man marking and only set up centres of excellence after our failure at Euro 2000. That was all too late. Scouting and training are gradually paying off but Mertesacker, Sinkiewicz, Podolski, Schweinsteiger are still too young.
What do you miss most since you have stopped coaching?
Not much. Perhaps the joys of winning a game. Or feeling the weight being taken off your shoulders. And working with young people.
2006 World Cup: New stars on the block
You live in Switzerland. You played and had your first job as coach there. Now Switzerland is all of a sudden in the World Cup finals. What's happened to Swiss football?
Over the last ten years Switzerland has invested a lot in youth development and excellent training opportunities for coaches. They set up special training centres long before Germany. They set their stall out early on because they knew that, as a small country, they had to be better than the others.
Trinidad and Tobago will be at Germany 2006, but the European Champions Greece, third placed at the last World Cup Turkey and the former World Cup winners Uruguay won't. What do you think of that?
That shows how tough the competition is. Greece's success at the European Championships was sensational. You can't reproduce that sort of form straight away. That's how things are normally. Turkey doesn't have much experience of playing in the finals. And the small countries benefit from their young players gaining vital experience abroad. These players start playing abroad at the age of eighteen on the bottom rung of the ladder. If they can find their feet they've made the grade.
In the World Cup you will be working with 'Premiere' as a pundit. Where do you get your information from? Will you be going on a world tour like Franz Beckenbauer did in his ambassadorial role?
No, I have already seen the teams in the qualifiers to get inside information. In the past I never watched our Champions League opponents live but did see videos of the games. That's how I developed my trained eye.
No, not really. I have always understood the role of journalists who have to write headlines or praise or criticise.
What is more attractive in the long term: Being a pundit or taking a more active role in the game with all its stresses and strains?
I like both. I've worked hard to have that freedom. I regard being able to do a job that makes fun as an important part of your quality of life, rather than having to work just for the money.
When you left Bayern Munich you played a lot of golf. Do you see any overlap with football?
Yes, in that you can never be perfect in something. The next shot is always the most important one. It's the same in football. And a permanent state of concentration as well. Or the vital steps you can take like scoring a goal or making a crucial pass in football, or playing a great approach shot or sinking the decisive putt in golf.
When a footballer scores a goal the net bulges, the crowd erupts and the players celebrate. With the last shot in golf the ball just disappears into the hole. How do you see that as a footballer?
When you putt it's more matter-of-fact. I had to get myself used to not celebrating too loudly!
If somebody makes it in football then they can make their mark in other areas of life. You give lectures to top businessmen and economics experts.
My subjects are leadership and dealing with stress. I don't want to take the role of a professor, who can put things over better than I can as somebody who is self-taught. However I can give a real life point of view because I've been through it myself. I can offer solutions based on my leadership experience or on how I took decisions under pressure.
What do you need for that besides experience?
You need expertise, the ability to teach, leadership qualities, including motivation and presentational skills, and psychological abilities. That's true of sport and business.
Can you give me an example?
Let's take Franz Beckenbauer's tirade after we lost to Lyon in the Champions League when he tore into the players. I had to react immediately. On the one hand I couldn't criticise the President and possibly endanger the club's structure. However, I had to make it clear to the players, who were already wound up, that they had to accept the criticism. And I had to draw a lesson from that to put things right in the future.
Do hierarchies play an important part?
Everybody needs leaders, in business as well: Heads of department who can motivate and offer support in a crisis.
If Michael Ballack left Bayern Munich that could very well affect the hierarchy. What would you advise him to do?
I've still got the Bayern bug. I hope for Bayern's sake that he stays. And I hope for Germany's sake that he remains our best player. It would be a great loss for the whole Bundesliga. Besides he can win the Champions League with Bayern and make himself a legend like Beckenbauer, Müller, Breitner, Hoeneß, Rummenigge, Kahn, Effenberg and Elber. At Real Madrid he would just be one amongst many. At Bayern he is recognised to be the international star player.
And now let's get back to Ottmar Hitzfeld, the manager. Just imagine a fairy godmother has granted your wish to manage your dream team. Which club would it be?
As a young manager I always aimed to be in a position where I didn't have to worry about the future. This can happen if you have to be a manager for 30 years. In the old days I wasn't interested in dreams and the same is true today. I have always felt more at one with reality. My wish would be to be in the right place at the right time.
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Ottmar Hitzfeld, 56, was born in Lörrach, the youngest of five children of a dentist. Hitzfeld is a qualified sports and mathematics teacher. He has been married to Beatrix since 1976 and the couple have a son.
With the exception of a three year stint with VfB Stuttgart between 1975 and 1978 Ottmar Hitzfeld only played football in Switzerland. His position was centre-forward. He took part in the 1972 Olympics in Germany alongside Uli Hoeneß and Paul Breitner. The manager was Udo Lattek.
Hitzfeld also began his managerial career in Switzerland. He won the Cup and League several times with Grasshoppers Zürich. From 1991 he was at Borussia Dortmund where he twice won the German League title and in 1997 the Champions League. In 1998 he went to Bayern Munich winning the German League four times and in 2001 he led them to victory in the Champions League.
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