Frankfurt, July 24 (IANS) Jurgen Klopp has been named new head coach of the German men’s national football team, signing a four-year contract on Friday.
He will succeed Julian Nagelsmann, who resigned after Germany’s elimination from the FIFA World Cup against Paraguay, on August 15. The 59-year-old will lead the national team to UEFA EURO 2028 and the FIFA World Cup 2030.
The German Football Federation stated that “the supervisory board and shareholders’ meeting of DFB GmbH & Co. KG had unanimously approved the proposal by DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and First DFB Vice President Hans-Joachim Watzke.”
“The national team can unite us Germans like almost nothing else. That’s precisely what makes this task so special for me. I’m grateful for everything I’ve experienced and learned at Red Bull over the past year and a half, and for the openness that made this agreement possible. Now I’m looking forward to this special task in German football, which we will approach together with humility and patience: developing a team that fights for each other, that enjoys football, and behind which the people of our country can rally with complete conviction,” Klopp said in a statement shared by DFB.
Peter Krawietz, Pepijn Lijnders, and Sven Bender will join Klopp as assistant coaches at the German Football Association (DFB).
Krawietz and Lijnders are long-time associates of Klopp, having won the UEFA Champions League with him at Liverpool in 2019 and the English Premier League title in 2020, among other trophies.
The 43-year-old Dutchman Lijnders was most recently Pep Guardiola’s assistant coach at Manchester City. The 54-year-old Krawietz, who also worked with Klopp at Mainz and Dortmund, joins the DFB from Red Bull. Sven Bender (37) returns after stints as assistant coach at Dortmund and head coach at Unterhaching. The seven-time German international previously served as assistant coach for the DFB’s U16 and U17 national teams from 2022 to 2024.
DFB President Neuendorf said, “After Julian Nagelsmann’s resignation, he (Jurgen Klopp) was our unequivocal choice for the position of national team coach. That’s why we pursued him relentlessly. I would like to thank everyone who paved the way for this collaboration, especially Oliver Mintzlaff for the constructive discussions and his cooperative attitude, as well as Aki Watzke for his tremendous support.”
At the end of September and beginning of October, Klopp and the national team will play four international matches in a single international break for the first time.
After the opening match against the Netherlands on September 24 in Amsterdam, Germany will face Greece three days later in Augsburg in Klopp’s first home international on September 27. This will be followed by the match against Serbia in Munich on October 1 and the game against Greece in Thessaloniki on October 4.
–IANS
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