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The then national coach Jürgen Klinsmann on sightseeing in Busan: that "the boys get to know each other better"
Photo: Peter Kneffel / picture-alliance / dpa / dpaweb
Jürgen Klinsmann has always had the gift of sometimes showing things in a more beautiful light than they really are.
As the new national coach in 2004, he found adorable words for the national team's trip to Asia at the time.
The DFB's trip to test matches against Japan, South Korea and Thailand shortly before Christmas was "a real learning element for the team", it was important "for intensifying the sense of community", so that "the boys got to know each other better".
It all sounded less like a sporting challenge than more like a socio-educational measure.
In reality, however, this trip to the Far East had a completely different meaning: It was a compulsory sporting exercise for the association, a consideration for the support of the Exko members from South Korea and Thailand in awarding the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
And, as the documents available to SPIEGEL and the »Süddeutsche Zeitung« show, a tough deal to satisfy the officials of the two countries and their associations financially.
South Korea and Thailand had the German side pay dearly for their perimeter advertising in the stadiums in Busan and Bangkok: two million dollars for the South Koreans, two million for Thailand.
Obviously a friendship service for the vote of the two ex-electors in 2000 for Germany.
The first game of the trip against the Japanese in Yokohama (3-0 for the DFB-Elf) was a bonus in every respect.
The Japanese market was particularly interesting for the league.
Squad announced in Europapark Rust
In terms of sport, those responsible had to bend over back then to justify the grueling journey, which led through three Asian countries from December 12 to 21.
There was also talk of »getting to know the Asian style of play« at the DFB, which the national team had already got to know two years earlier at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea - at the latest when the team had to face South Korea in the semi-finals.
At that point in Advent 2004, Klinsmann had only been in office since August, he and his new entourage, assistant Joachim Löw and manager Oliver Bierhoff, had only just started to "turn every stone at the DFB", as Klinsmann had announced when he took office .
But after just four months, the new style of those in charge was noticeable: The squad for the trip was not announced by a dismal press release, but at an appearance in the Europapark Rust.
Klinsmann had invited a handful of debutants, including some who then quickly disappeared from the orbit of the national team: the Lauterer Marco Engelhardt, for example, or the Wolfsburg goalkeeper Simon Jentzsch.
Bremen's Christian Schulz, who is unlikely to remember his time as a national player, was also part of the travel squad.
The players of VfB Stuttgart only came later because they were still employed in the Uefa Cup. In addition to Andreas Hinkel and Kevin Kuranyi, they also included Philipp Lahm, who was still employed in Stuttgart at the time.
2000 minutes in the air
It was a trip that made no sense in many ways - a game against Thailand, somewhere in the basement of the world rankings, how was that supposed to help a team that was runner-up in the world?
In order to make it from Japan to South Korea in time, the team had to take a night flight.
In any case, the delegation was more in the air than on the field.
The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" had calculated that the national team spent 270 minutes on the soccer field in these ten days, but 2000 minutes on the plane.
Trainer Jürgen Klinsmann spontaneously moved the training units to the hotel and converted them to regeneration.
During the entire period of their stay in Asia, the team had only trained regularly twice.
There were just two days between the game in Busan, South Korea (1: 3, Klinsmann's first DFB defeat) and the last game in Bangkok (5: 1).
"I'm totally exhausted, in the end I had no sense of time at all because I was constantly tired," complained goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.
The »Handelsblatt« spoke of the »Asia Tortour«.
Debutant Patrick Owomoyela was also allowed to play against Japan
Photo: Oliver Berg / picture-alliance / dpa / dpaweb
ARD and ZDF broadcast the games in Germany at the unusual lunchtime, so the TV ratings were also the lowest that the national team had recently achieved.
At ARD, expert Günter Netzer sat in the studio and complained about the stresses and strains of traveling: “We once made a trip to Asia for the World Cup with HSV.
The players wanted to run, but they just couldn't. ”The fact that he and his marketing company Infront also earned money on the trip to Asia was not mentioned.
Magath grumbled from home
Back then, the entire operation was viewed critically at home, but only from the aspect of sporting and physical stress.
Felix Magath, coach of FC Bayern at the time, grumbled: "We can't always focus everything on the national team." Klinsmann should ask himself "whether he's doing himself a favor".
The tense relationship between the national coach and the clubs, which Klinsmann was to accompany up to the 2006 World Cup, has one of its origins in this trip.
Those responsible for the team were well aware that they were not primarily developing the team spirit here, but were on the road in the service of the association.
Six years later, in an interview with the »Tagesspiegel«, Bierhoff remembered the question of whether the national team was too isolated from the DFB: »I can list what we do for the DFB: from the sporting commitments such as the trip to Asia and the benefit games, the Oliver Kahn farewell game and our TV image spots. "
Klinsmann and Bierhoff lured the national players with a special piece of sugar: While there was hardly any time to train during the trip, the players were offered the opportunity to do “free time and Christmas shopping”.
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