Joachim Löw talks 2018 World Cup regrets, Jamal Musiala recruitment and Özil farewell | OneFootball

Former German national team head-coach Joachim Löw has conducted an interview with German footballing journalist Rainer Franzke. The full interview is set to hit the newsstands in the Monday print edition of Kicker. GGFN is pleased to supply some translated highlights of the transcript below.

Franzke: 1315 days will have passed since your last day as national coach. What does your daily routine look like?

Löw: “I have more time to devote to friends and family. For a long time, this was long neglected, and I now appreciate it very much. I have had more in-depth conversations, listened more, and taken care of the concerns of those close to me who have always been there for me and continue to be there for me. Privacy was lost as a public figure.”

Is there life without football for you?

“Not at all! I’m always being asked about football. You’re asking me about it now [laughs]. Recently, I’ve had filming dates for a documentary about the 2014 World Cup….Football is always at the center of my heart, and it will remain so. Irrespective of whether I’m standing on the touchline or not.”

You regularly go to the stadium. How do you decide which games to watch?

“I don’t necessarily have a fixed plan. I’m at [home-town club] SC Freiburg more often. I also do VfB Stuttgart and occasionally FC Bayern [Munich] or [Eintracht] Frankfurt.”

And the national team?

“The first year after my resignation was difficult for me……Now I have a little more distance….During the [home] European Championship in the summer of 2024, I got great joy out of the national team again.

“I also realized that I [still] think about a lot of things such as how would I tactically resolve a situation during a game. Even though I haven’t been in the job for a while, I still remain a coach. Even at a distance, my thoughts revolve around optimizing a game. I still can’t stop that.”

Did you consider retirement after winning the World Cup in 2014?

“.….I reflected upon it and fell into a hole the week after the euphoria I asked myself: Do I still have the fire within?…..But the positive energy and the ambition to keep the team at this level were always there.”

And when did that change?

“After the 2018 World Cup [group stage elimination], resigning would have been the correct move, but [national team director] Oliver Bierhoff and I wanted to  that erase that humiliation. There was as a sense of anger that we wanted to turn into positive energy.

“Two or three years later, I realized that it would have been the right time. I should have cleared the way for someone to come up with new ideas and make a clean break with the ‘golden generation’.”

Where are Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala headed in their careers?

“Both are exceptional players. If they stay healthy, there’s virtually no limit to what they can achieve. They are already key players in their teams at a young age, making a huge difference. People love to watch them play: their style, elegance, intelligence, pace, the goal-scoring potential and the technique.”

You once recruited Jamal Musiala to play for Germany over England.

“It was in Munich [in February of 2021]. We [myself and Musiala] had spoken a few times in advance, and then Oliver Bierhoff and I went to see him before the 2021 European Championship. That was the only time in my coaching career that I really made a promise to a player early on.

“Musiala was on the Bayern bench at the time, but his talent quite apparent. We knew that he could be incredibly important for the team of our country. So we had to get him to commit

“Musiala was a little conflicted because he also has friends in England, such as [Jude] Bellingham, with whom he played in the U-21s. We promised him that we would be there in the last game before the Euros and then at the tournament. His great mother was there too.“

How did you convince him?

“I promised him that he would be called up [for the March World Cup 2022 qualifiers] and at the European Championships [that coming June]. But we also told him – just as we did with Mesut Özil or Ilkay Gündogan – that he had to follow his heart.“

You mentioned Özil. He was once a role model for integration and is now persona-non-grata for various groups…

“He was an incredible gift for the team and an incredible player. I condemned what happened after 2018 because he left the national team – which had been his family for years – without saying goodbye.

“He was offended and a shitstorm broke out [over the scandal of he and teammate Ilkay Gündogan’s posing for pictures with controversial Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan]….I would have liked for us to have a different farewell…It’s a shame.“

Would you consider a new role in professional football?

“There have been a few offers in the past two years, but I didn’t feel the burning desire to take them on. It’s an advantage of getting older to be able to look at things calmly.

“But I will look into some exciting options. I have experience with national teams and in forming a vision for a tournament team over a two-year-period.“

The number of participants in the World Cup and the European club competitions has been increased, and the Club World Cup has been added. Is this workload still reasonable?

“We have crossed the line a bit. The accumulation of stress has increased. That’s a big problem. I wonder how many years the players can tolerate this stress before they are physically or mentally drained.

“The games and travel are extreme, even if the footballers are resilient and well trained. I just wonder: if someone plays at this level at 18, will they still be able to muster the necessary energy and power to carry on at 28 and 29?

“I realize that there’s a lot of money in this business. But the players are the main focus. That’s why we have to rein it in somehow.”

The average age of Bundesliga coaches is 43.6 years. The generation around Xabi Alonso, Sebastian Hoeneß, Dino Toppmöller and Julian Schuster is causing a stir. What sets them apart?

“It’s a positive and interesting development. Of course experience is important, especially as a coach. But this generation not only brings a breath of fresh air, but also remarkable flexibility and creativity.

“They have a closeness to the players that is very important in today’s world. The youth is an advantage because they can maintain a close bond with the 18- and 19-year-olds and speak their language.

“What impresses me is that these young coaches cultivate a culture of the playful line. I like that. You can see how the teams have improved greatly within a short span…..because they cultivate playful solutions.

“Leverkusen, for example, is much stronger in terms of play than it was before Xabi Alonso. That’s what made them take the step of becoming German champions and being a top international team. I see the same thing at VfB [Stuttgart].”

GGFN | Peter Weis