Völler and Klinsmann – Apostles of resurrection of German football

Written by Shantanu Paranjape on

German football has a long tradition of world-class strikers- from poachers like Gerd Müller, Miroslav Klose to all-round strikers like Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. In late 1980s, a lethal striking pair of a poacher, Rudi Völler and an all-round striker, Jürgen Klinsmann took the centre stage and guided West Germany over World Cup triumph in 1990 over Maradona’s Argentina. They contributed later as coaches in resurrection of German football in early 2000s. As part of our new series “Hunting in Pairs”, their journey is presented by Shantanu Paranjape at Goalden Times.

July 4, 2006. Dortmund Westfalenstadion, Germany. Final few minutes of extra-time in World Cup semi-final between the host Germany and arch-rivals Italy. Both sides have failed to produce a goal so far in the match. Two minutes to go for the penalty shoot-out and Italy win a corner. Alessandro Del Piero whips in an outswinger which is cleared by German defence but only as far as Andrea Pirlo at the edge of 18-yard box who slides the ball through German defence to Fabio Grosso inside the box on the right-hand side. The left-back effortlessly curls the ball with the left foot on the far top corner. German coach Jürgen Klinsmann and the whole stadium are left in shock as Italy score another goal in the next minute on a counter-attack through Del Piero. The host nation’s World Cup dream was over. Klinsmann was a few minutes away from becoming the fourth person to reach a World Cup final both as a player and a coach. His predecessor and former strike-partner from 1990 World Cup triumph Rudi Völler, 1990 World Cup coach Franz Beckenbauer and Brazilian legend Mário Zagallo had previously achieved this feat.

When Klinsmann had taken charge of the German team after the team’s first-round exit under Rudi Völler in Euro 2004, not much was expected from the team who were to host the World Cup in less than two years. However, the World Cup winner reignited the winning mentality of Die Mannschaft and introduced attacking football through new young players. While Völler had reached the World Cup final four years ago in Asia, his team was incohesive and had only qualified for the World Cup through play-offs against Ukraine after finishing second in the qualification group behind England following a 5-1 loss in Munich. Multitude of good luck and hard work from players and the coach helped them reach the final. However, they were defeated 2-0 by the attacking Brazilian side of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho as Ronaldo scored a brace in the second half. Golden Ball winner of the tournament, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn made a rare error to gift the Brazilian side the first goal of the final. A year later in 2003, Völler exploded at the national TV channel ARD’s football show host Waldemar Hartmann after Germany 0-0 draw against Iceland.[1] He called football pundits’ critique of his team as nonsense stirring a nationwide controversy and gossip. He resigned after a year when Germany went out of the Euro in group stages.

Rudolf "Rudi" Völler

Rudolf Völler was born in Hanau, West Germany on April 13, 1960, 25 kilometers away from Frankfurt. His father Kurt Völler was caretaker for youth team of the local club TSV 1860 Hanau who played in district-level league. In TSV’s youth teams, he scored 40-50 goals every season before being scouted by Kickers Offenbach who were playing in second division of Bundesliga. Völler joined Kickers youth team at the age of 15 while also taking vocational training as an office clerk. It was a common trend amongst youth footballers in Germany to do a professional training on the side which continues till date so that young players who failed to get professional contracts would always have career opportunities outside football. Rudi made his professional debut for them in November 1977 and scored his first professional goal just two months after his debut. He signed a professional contract with the club in 1978/79 season and scored 18 goals in 67 games over the next two seasons. In the summer of 1980, TSV 1860 Munich from first division came calling for him and he was transferred to Munich for 700,00 Deutsche Marks (around €350,000).

At that time, 16-year-old Jürgen Klinsmann was still plying his trade at youth levels of Stuttgarter Kickers. Being born to a master baker Siegfried Klinsmann on July 30, 1964 in the town of Göppingen near Stuttgart, Klinsmann started playing football for a local club called TB Gingen and scored 16 goals in a single match for his team.[2] At the age of ten, he moved to a district-level football club called Sport-Klub Geislingen. After four years, he moved to Stuttgarter Kickers youth team joining his future national teammate Guido Buchwald. Stuttgarter Kickers won 1979 German Youth Championship beating FC Nürnberg in the final. In 1981, he was given a professional contract by then second division Bundesliga team. Just like Völler, Klinsmann also completed his vocational training but as a baker. He scored 22 goals in 61 games over the next three seasons before joining the city rival VFB Stuttgart for € 120,000, which was coached by Helmut Benthaus for the first season. Benthaus was the coach of FC Basel’s legendary team of 1960s. He had coached the likes of Ottmar Hitzfeld and Karl Odermatt. Benthaus was a free-thinker, an educator and was described as an intellectual trainer by former VFB president and former UEFA vice-president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder. Klinsmann playing for Stuttgart would go on to become one of the most talented and upcoming players in Germany.

Jürgen Klinsmann

Klinsmann moved to VFB Stuttgart in the summer of 1984 while Völler had moved to ambitious Werder Bremen from 1860 Munich in the summer of 1982. For the Münchener club, he had scored nine goals in 33 matches in the first season but they were relegated to 2nd league at the end of the season. Rudi was the top scorer of second Bundesliga with 37 goals in 37 matches. They had finished fourth missing out on the promotion playoff spot by one point. However, German Football Association (DFB) revoked their licence due to economic reasons relegating them further down the German league pyramid to then state-level Oberliga. He was too good to be in that league and moved to Bremen. He played five top-class seasons under one of the most celebrated German coaches, Otto Rehhagel. Rehhagel, who also scouted players like Miroslav Klose, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Angelos Charisteas was a tactically astute coach. He liked having a target-man with good heading ability. Rudi’s heading and Rehhagel’s tactics were in perfect symbiosis. In his first season (1982-83) at Bremen, he was the league’s top scorer with 23 goals.

Rudi won the 1983 West German Player of The Year award and was called up to the West German national team. He made his debut against Netherlands coming on as a substitute for Lothar Matthäus. He went to 1984 Euro where he started all 3 group-stage games playing in the front-three with Klaus Allofs and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. However, West Germany went out in the first round after scoring only two goals in three games. Völler scored both goals against 2-1 victory over Romania and had a successful tournament at least on a personal level. He went to the World Cup in Mexico two years later and by then he was the main attacking partner of Rummenigge. He scored one goal in the group stages before getting injured during the round-of-16 win against Morocco. He also missed the quarter-final against Mexico. He could only return in the second half of semi-final against France as a substitute. Germany had taken an early lead through Brehme in the ninth minute. Michel Platini who one of the best players of that era and his team failed to put the ball past German custodian Toni Schuhmacher. While France committed most of its men towards the attack in the last few minutes, Schuhmacher threw a long ball to Klaus Allofs and he was 2 vs 1 along with Völler against a French defender. Allofs passed the ball to Rudi who took the ball over the onrushing French goalkeeper Joël Bats with his first touch and put the ball calmly into the empty net. He only came on the field against Argentina in the second half of the final. West Germany were trailing for the three quarters of the game. He assisted Rummenigge on a corner with a header to make the score 2-1. He then scored the equalizer to make the score 2-2 again with a header but they eventually lost the game 2-3 to resolute Argentines. Völler created a good reputation for himself as a poacher and a clinical finisher.

During this time, he also had successful seasons with Werder Bremen where they finished second in the Bundesliga thrice in five seasons. He made 137 league appearances scoring 97 goals. Klinsmann also started his VFB Stuttgart career with 17 goals in the 1984-85 season. He scored 94 goals in 186 games for them for five seasons and received call-up to the national team in 1987 making his debut against Brazil. Meanwhile he enjoyed good success with his club scoring the highest number of goals in 1987-88 Bundesliga season and winning the West German Footballer of the Year award. In 1989, he reached UEFA Cup (now Europa League) final with Stuttgart losing against Diego Maradona’s Napoli team. He scored one goal in the second leg of the final.

Völler moved to AS Roma in the summer of 1987. Serie A was the most popular and exciting league at that time which already boasted players like Maradona, Platini, Michael Laudrup and welcomed more stars like Alemão, Careca, Ruud Gullit, Matthäus, Brehme, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard in subsequent years. He became popular with the Roma fans and they nicknamed him il tedesco volante meaning the flying German. When he won the 1990 World Cup final against Maradona’s Argentina at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, the Roma fans felt as if he had won the World Cup for them in the home stadium. Similarly, Klinsmann also made Serie A move to Giovanni Trapattoni’s Inter Milan in 1989 to join his compatriots Matthäus and Brehme who had moved there a summer before. He took quite an interest in Italian culture and learnt the language, making him a fan favourite at Nerazzurri. Völler and Klinsmann faced each other in an all-Italian UEFA Cup final in 1990-91. Inter won the first leg 2-0 as Klinsmann set up Nicola Berti for the second goal. Roma won the second leg 1-0 but lost on aggregate. Völler finished as the top goal scorer of that tournament with 10 goals. He spent five seasons at Roma scoring 67 goals in 193 games while Klinsmann spent three seasons at Inter with 40 goals in 123 games.

They both moved in the summer of 1992 to Ligue 1 in France. Rudi went to Olympique de Marseille and Klinsmann went to AS Monaco whose manager was a tactical genius and a budding coach – Arsène Wenger. Völler scored on his Champions League debut against Glentoran, a Northern Irish club. He scored two goals and provided six assists in eight games as Marseille won their first Champions League. He also scored 18 goals in 33 games as Les Olympiens also won the Ligue 1. In the next season, they finished 2nd. However, Marseille were charged in a bribery scandal and were stripped off their league title from 92-93 season and relegated at the end of the 1993-94 season despite finishing second in the league. Klinsmann in his first season for Les Monégasques scored 20 goals helping them finish at the 3rd place. However, due to Marseille’s scandal, they were to replace them in the 1993 Champions League. Klinsmann scored four goals in 10 games as they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League losing out to the eventual winners AC Milan. However, their domestic performance was dismal as they finished ninth in Ligue 1.

After the end of the 1993-94 season, 34-year-old Rudi Völler moved back to Germany to play the last twoseasons of his career as he joined Bayer Leverkusen. In next two seasons, he scored 30 goals in 73 games for Bayer in all competitions. However, in the summer of 1994, 30-year-old Klinsmann was making a sensational move. He moved to Tottenham Hotspur in North London. He arrived in London and was left surprised by the amount of attention the English media gave him. English media called him a diver referring to his theatrical dolphin-like jumping while representing West Germany in 1990 World Cup final after being genuinely fouled by Argentine defender Pedro Monzón. Klinsmann was amused by this as he claimed to have never dived in his career. However, he took the situation in a jolly way. In the first press conference, he asked the journalists for the address of the nearest Diving School. When he scored on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday, he ran towards the fans and did a funny dive as goal celebration. English media absolutely loved him for that and he quickly became a fan favourite. He later revealed in an interview that his Spurs teammate Teddy Sheringham had suggested this celebration in the locker-room chat before the game.[3] He scored 30 goals in 50 games for Spurs during that season. He left for Bayern Munich after that season but he became a hugely popular figure in England. His wax statue was installed in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London due to his famous season with Spurs.

He wanted to win trophies in the last few years of his career. Bayern Munich allowed him opportunities at the silverware. He also wanted to find out whether he could settle down in Germany with his American wife Debbie Chin, a former model. So, he moved to Bayern which had an angry reaction from Spurs chairman Alan Sugar who called him a mercenary. He threw Klinsmann’s jersey on the ground during a press release and said that he was so disgusted that he would not even wash his car with it. Journeyman Klinsmann became top scorer of Bayern for next two seasons. In 1995-96 season he scored record 15 goals in UEFA Cup which Die Roten won. His record of 15 goals in one season was broken after 15 years in 2010-11 season by Radamel Falcao of Porto. In 1995, Klinsmann finished second in Ballon d’Or and third in FIFA Player of The Year. In the next season, he won the Bundesliga with Bayern and then left for Sampdoria in Serie A. However, he made a return on loan to Tottenham in December after being injured in Italy for the most of the first half of the season. Spurs Chairman Sugar and Klinsmann reconciled and Sugar explained that there was a misunderstanding regarding duration of Klinsmann’s stay at the club when he left for the first time. He scored nine goals in 15 games as he saved Tottenham from relegation which finished only four points above relegation spot and with a goal difference of -12.

He would then retire and settle in US with his family. In 2003, he played for Orange County Blue Star, a Californian club playing in the fourth division of US soccer. He was enlisted as a Jay Göppingen for the team and scored five goals in eight games. In a 2004 interview with British journalist Chris Hunt, Klinsmann said that it happened because someone from the team’s management had played a prank without his knowledge. Nonetheless he enjoyed it because he could play football in peace without any special attention.

Völler and Klinsmann both were integral part of Die Mannschaft for almost a decade. They played together for the first time in April 1988 in an international friendly against Argentina which they won 1-0. In 1988 Euro, they started all three group stage games as the front-pair. They both assisted one goal to each other while Rudi scored one more, courtesy Matthäus. In the semi-final against Netherlands, Klinsmann won a penalty which was converted by Matthäus but they conceded two late goals due to Marco van Basten’s inspirational performance and lost the match.

They continued their attacking partnership throughout the international friendlies and World Cup qualifiers enroute the 1990 World Cup in Italy. With five goals and three assists between them in six qualifiers, they became important for Beckenbauer’s West German team. Both played the club football in Italy at that time. They were also joined by Matthäus, Brehme (Inter Milan) and Thomas Berthold (AS Roma) who played in Italy. Inter triad of Klinsmann, Matthäus and Brehme formed great understanding with Völler despite playing club football for rival clubs. Matthäus, a central midfielder, could make hard tackles, dribble, set up his team-mates and score many goals. More importantly, he was a leader. And Brehme, a left-back with tremendous work rate and great attacking abilities, was perhaps the best example of modern day attacking full-back and still very underrated. He formed a formidable backline with Berthold, Klaus Augenthaler, Jürgen Köhler and Guido Buchwald. West Germany were not clear tournament favourites but they had a strong core of experienced and skilled players. West Germany thrashed Yugoslavia 4-1 in the first group game as Matthäus scored a brace while Klinsmann and Völler grabbed one goal each. Brehme provided assists for two of the four goals. Völler and Klinsmann scored two goals and one goal respectively in the remaining group matches while West Germany comfortably progressed to knockout stages.

Their round-of-16 game was against Netherlands who had knocked them out of Euro 1988. Expected to be a high-quality contest, this game made headlines for the wrong reasons. A few minutes after the start of the game, Frank Rijkaard brought down rampant Völler who was easily gliding past orange shirts. He was shown a yellow card for the challenge. After being booked, Rijkaard followed Völler and spat in his hair. Völler said some angry words to the Dutchman but the referee who was oblivious to the situation booked Völler. In the 23rd minute, Völler almost collided with Dutch goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen on Brehme’s freekick. Rijkaard went to Völler who was on the ground and tweaked his ear. Agitated, Völler got into a verbal altercation with him and the referee irritated by the second situation between the two, showed straight red cards to both of them. When they were walking towards the tunnel, Rijkaard spat on Völler’s hair for the second time. All the actions of this incident were caught on the camera. Klinsmann and Brehme secured a 2-1 win over Oranje with one goal each. Rijkaard apologized to Rudi after the game and Rudi immediately forgave him. This show of sportsmanship made German fans love Rudi even more. A few years later, they both did a funny commercial for Dutch butter brand Echte Boter.

Thus, Rudi missed the next game against Czechoslovakia. Klinsmann won a penalty after skipping past four defenders and it was converted by Matthäus. West Germany won the game 1-0. Völler returned to the starting XI in semi-final against England but had to be taken off after half an hour because he pulled his hamstring. In an exciting game of mixed chances and woodwork, the score was tied 1-1 at the end of extra time. Klinsmann got into scoring position many times in the game but could not finish. He produced a great save from English goalkeeper Peter Shilton from a point-blank header in the 96th minute. England eventually lost on penalties. After the loss, England’s scorer Gary Lineker gave the footballing world one of most famous quote: “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win”[4].West Germany met Argentina in the finals. Maradona’s Argentina had beaten Völler and Co. in the final four years ago. Argentina had beaten Brazil and Italy on their way to the final. The final turned out be a very clumsy affair. Pedro Monzón, Argentine substitute fouled Klinsmann in a brutal tackle in the 65th minute. He was shown a straight red card. In the 85th minute, 10-men Argentina conceded a penalty due to a foul on Völler by Roberto Sensini. The very soft penalty was converted by Brehme and West Germans took the revenge of their 1986 final defeat. Klinsmann and Völler ended the World Cup with three goals and two assists each.

In 1992 European competition, Völler, the captain of German team was injured in the first game against Soviet Union and had to miss the remaining tournament. Karl-Heinz Riedle partnered Klinsmann upfront as they scored four goals together. Klinsmann provided an assist and a goal in the tournament. Germany suffered a shocking 2-0 loss against Denmark in the final. In the 1994 World Cup, 34-year-old Rudi was already playing second fiddle to Riedle and Klinsmann. He only made a 28-minute=substitute appearance in group stages. He returned to the starting XI in round-of-16 game against Belgium and scored a goal within five minutes from the start. Georges Grün pulled one goal back after only two minutes for Belgium. Both sides had scored one goal each in seven minutes. To finish the frantic first 10 minutes of the game, Klinsmann and Rudi created a magical moment. Rudi received the ball near the half-line and dribbled few metres before passing the ball to Klinsmann. Klinsmann gave a majestic backheel pass into the path of Rudi who was now behind the midfield of Belgium. He danced around two defenders and left the ball in the path of an onrushing Klinsmann. Klinsmann hit the ball sweetly with his left foot as it went past the Belgian keeper, low and precise at the far corner. Rudi scored another goal towards the end of the first half and secured the game for Germans. In the quarters against Bulgaria, Rudi and Klinsmann again started as strike-pair. Klinsmann won the penalty at the start of the second half but Bulgaria inspired by Hristo Stoichkov scored two late goals to throw Germans out of the World Cup.

Rudi retired from Die Mannschaft after the World Cup while Klinsmann went on to play two more major tournaments. With three goals in Euro 1996, he inspired the Germans to their first major trophy as the unified nation. He also went to World Cup 1998 and scored three goals as Germany bowed out to Croatia in the quarter-final. It was his last tournament for Germany as he hung his boots. Both Völler and Klinsmann went to three World Cups and three Euros each and enjoyed a lot of success. In 15 World Cup games, Rudi scored eight goals while Klinsmann scored 11 in 17 games. Rudi scored four in eight games at Euros while Klinsmann scored five in 13 games. Both scored total 47 goals for Germany. It took 90 games for Völler while Klinsmann did it in 108. In 38 games in which they featured together, Rudi scored 17 goals while Klinsmann scored 10. Both of them are remembered as prolific goal scorers and big match players for Germany. Both later became national team trainers and coached Germany in one World Cup each.

After his retirement from football, Völler became Sporting Director of Bayer Leverkusen. When German FA (Deutscher Fußball Bund) wanted to appoint Leverkusen coach Christoph Daum who was still bound by contract at the club, Völler took the job for one year as an interim coach. However, Daum’s drug scandal made Völler the permanent head-coach of Germany. He led an ordinary German team to the final of World Cup 2002. Already a fan-favourite as a player, Rudi won over German fans with his charming gestures on the sidelines. For example, in semi-final win over South Korea, he held Guus Hiddink’s hand and winked at him. However, Euro 2004 was a disaster. In former World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm’s autobiography published in 2011, he criticized his training methods saying that the team only trained one hour a day and there was no tactical or video analyses. On the contrary, for Michael Ballack, who went on to become the leader of German team, Völler did tremendous work of reigniting spark in the national team by introducing young and talented players like Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Per Mertesacker in Euro 2004. He went to AS Roma a month after the Euros as a coach but had to resign one month after getting poor results. He took a caretaker job at Leverkusen for a month in September 2005 when Klaus Augenthaler was sacked. Later he returned to his previous Sporting Director post at the club.

The Iron Throne of the German coaching was vacant after Rudi resigned in summer of 2004. There were no willing candidates and suddenly an old but odd name emerged. Jürgen Klinsmann was appointed as head coach. German people and media had totally forgotten their World Cup hero by now. He had disappeared completely from the football scene when he moved to United States with his wife after his retirement. German fans welcomed his appointment with some doubts. He however had no prior coaching job. He with assistant Joachim Löw, whom he had met during his coaching licence training, not only took over the duties of national team but also took upon themselves to revolutionize German football. They surveyed German players and coaches with questions like what style they wanted to play, how they wanted to be seen by fans etc. They finally decided that they will play a more offensive, fast and direct football. German team at World Cup 2006 was a young, vibrant and attacking unit. German fans fell in love with it. After a heart-breaking semi-final exit against Italy, Klinsmann however resigned citing fatigue. His recommended successor Löw assimilated more youngsters over the years and won World Cup eight years after Klinsmann had left. German captain Michael Ballack has been quoted in football author Lee Price’s book “The Bundesliga Blueprint: How Germany Became the Home of Football” saying that Klinsmann arrived with a plan about how he wanted his team to play. He also brought in American sports mentality giving more concessions to players during training camps and introduced a much-relaxed atmosphere in the team making it easier for players to bond with each other beyond professional level.

Klinsmann would then take job at Bayern Munich after a two years gap. He was sacked in April when the team was at third place in the league having exited in Champions League quarter-finals against eventual Barcelona. He apparently had differences with the board which resulted in his sacking despite having a win percentage of over 50. Lahm again in his controversial autobiography accused Klinsmann of lacking in the tactical part of coaching. He was hired as head-coach of US National team in 2011 as they expected him to give new life to the struggling US team just as he did to Germany. In 2014 World Cup, the USMNT qualified for the knockouts despite being in a tough group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana. However, they could not overcome Marc Wilmots’ Belgian side in the round-of-16. He was fired in 2016 after a dismal start to USA’s World Cup qualification campaign in the CONCACAF Hex. His replacement was Bruce Arena, one of the best coaches in USMNT history. However, USA still missed the qualification berth after a shock defeat against Trinidad and Tobago on the last matchday of qualification.

Völler and Klinsmann had very similar careers both as players and coaches. They were instrumental in the betterment of German football both as players and coaches. Both scored plenty of goals in big competitions and matches. They are currently ranked joint fourth in Germany’s all-time top scorers list with 47 goals. Die Mannschaft’s coaching job was the first coaching job for both of them. They took Germany deep into World Cup competitions as trainers. Yet despite their similarities on paper, they were fundamentally very different players and persons. Völler, nicknamed Tante Käthe (Aunt Kathy) by Thomas Berthold due to his grey curls which would make him look like the typical Hessen old lady, was a no-nonsense workhorse who was very efficient as a player and had great goal scoring instincts. Klinsmann on the other hand was pacey, vibrant and he loved running into spaces behind the defensive lines. He got a nickname called Flipper because of his strange technique on ball. His first touch wasn’t always perfect, the ball would bounce from his boots but he always somehow managed to control it. He was also not shy of being flashy outside the field. The author of many books related to German football, Uli Hesse, in his article for Irish sports news The42 has described Klinsmann as a bit of an intellectual and free thinker. He was curious about different cultures and tried to accommodate new cultural qualities in his personality everywhere he went. Hesse juxtaposed Völler with Klinsmann as a “regular guy”.

Till this date, both are highly respected and loved by German fans. Rudi Völler appears regularly on post-match interviews for Bayer Leverkusen and gives his honest and direct opinions. But Jürgen Klinsmann, has disappeared again from the footballing world.

References:

[1] “Der Gefühlsausbruch von Rudi Völler”. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

(video: https://www.sportschau.de/allgemein/archiv/video-voellers-wutrede-100.html)

[2] Manfred, Tony (3 August 2011). “Jurgen Klinsmann: The Charismatic German Who’s Leading The Chase For America’s First World Cup”. Business Insider. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

[3] Hunt, Chris (1 August 2004). “Jürgen Klinsmann: One-on-One”. FourFourTwo. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

[4] “Classic Players – Lineker, still at the top – FIFA:”. FIFA. Retrieved 25 May 2018.