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Hertha BSC has made an intensive effort to find Jürgen Klinsmann. The former national coach was to lead the Berlin Bundesliga club, which was increasingly lagging behind its own expectations, as a coach to greater success. Klinsmann was ensnared. He considered seriously. Then he stopped. So Hertha continued for the time being with coach Pál Dárdai. That was in the summer of 2018.
A good 16 months later, Klinsmann has become a trainer at Hertha BSC. The 55-year-old, who has been without a coaching job since his end in the US national team in 2016, will take over from Ante Covic, who replaced Dárdai only before that season. This confirmed Hertha on Wednesday afternoon in a press release.
Klinsmann is now to lead Hertha to the end of the season where the club sees itself, especially after the entry of investor Lars Windhorst with 225 million euros in June itself: near the European Cups. Windhorst dreams of transforming Hertha into a "big city club" like Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain or Real Madrid.
Klinsmann should not reach this goal in the short term. First of all, it is important to steer the deadlocked capital club out of mediocrity. At least with his name, the World Champion of 1990 and European Champion of 1996 gives the Berliners ever new shine.
Currently Hertha is on place 15 - from the Relegationsplatz 16 separate the club only two multiple goal against Fortuna Dusseldorf. After the 0: 4 in Augsburg on Sunday Covic, who was allowed to continue in a victory, was unstoppable. A "disclosure oath" was spoken internally.
Kovac was the first choice of Hertha manager Preetz
The fact that Klinsmann returns to the Bundesliga ten years after his noisy break at Bayern is considered a sensation. The fact that he does this at an average club, which threatens to miss the European Cup places in his third consecutive season and is in the relegation battle, looks curious. But there are two reasons: one is Windhorst, the other is Michael Preetz, Hertha's manager.
At the beginning of November, it was announced that Klinsmann would take on one of four seats in the Hertha Supervisory Board, which the investor Windhorst belongs to in the nine-member committee. Windhorst holds 49.9 percent of the shares in Hertha BSC Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (KGaA). Klinsmann was supposed to supervise the work of the management (including that of Preetz) and bring in the athletic competence which Windhorst itself lacks. Then the sporting misery intensified with Hertha.
Klinsmann was not the first choice of Preetz. The manager, who has long maintained a friendly relationship with Klinsmann, first contacted Niko Kovac on Monday. But said off because he wants to pause after his break at Bayern on 3 November for the time being, and because he is friends with Covic (Kovac is even the godfather of Covic's son).
Has Windhorst taken power from Hertha?
On Tuesday, the Hertha decision makers sat together into the night. Inbound were extra Windhorst and Klinsmann, who still has his main residence in the USA. The fact that Klinsmann takes over was far from clear. Actually, he saw himself more in a superior role. But in the course of the talks, he agreed to take over the coaching job - at the urging of Preetz and Windhorst.
Preetz wanted to get Klinsmann to SPIEGEL information already in 2018 to Hertha. At that time, the second half of the season 2017/2018 was disappointing. Now a new constellation has emerged.
From the outside, it seems as if Windhorst has taken over the power at Hertha and enforced his trainee candidate. Internally but it says that Klinsmann was a common solution - and just from the entry Windhorsts a trainee candidate. Windhorst also does not perform like the new boss in the ring, but "as a helper".
Friedrich and Koepke join the coaching team
Klinsmann is now to lead the team until summer - and at least help to ensure that the transformation aimed at Windhorst to the big club is not led by absurdity by a descent or a very poor placement.
Whether Klinsmann succeeds is open. That he is a pure motivator and Umkrempler of crusty structures, as this was rumored after his engagements before and during the 2006 World Cup and at Bayern 2008/2009, may be doubted. However, Klinsmann has not trained a team for three years. Most recently, he was RTL expert at international matches of the German national team.
He brings a larger team to Berlin: Andreas Köpke, who became Klinsmann 1990 World and 1996 European champion, is goalkeeping coach, but at the same time remains national goalkeeper coach in the German national team. In addition come as an assistant coach the former Bremen head coach Alexander Nouri and the former Bundesliga player Markus Feldhoff, who had worked as an assistant under Nouri at Werder in 2016/2017.
According to SPIEGEL information, the former Hertha captain and 82-time national player Arne Friedrich (was from 2002-2010 players in Berlin) to join Klinsmann's team. It is still unclear which role Friedrich, who finished third at the World Championships in Germany under Klinsmann in 2006, is still uncertain.
The experiment with Jürgen Klinsmann is initially scheduled for five months until the end of the season. It is not excluded that he will even continue in the event of success. But another possibility is conceivable: Hertha has only picked up the cancellation for the moment from Niko Kovac. It is said that from summer on, the native Berliner and former Hertha player wanted to work again.
