UEFA Euro 2004 Portugal
'Give me the job'
AFP, Berlin
Former Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld said he was ready to step into the shoes of Rudi Voller as German national coach just hours after the former Roma striker resigned from his post in the wake of the disastrous Euro 2004 exit. Voller, 44, felt he was not the right man to guide Germany to the 2006 World Cup to be held on home soil after Wednesday's 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic saw the three-time European champions limp out of the Portugal finals without a win to their name. Hitzfeld has long been touted as a future chief of the German team and his release by Bayern at the end of the season - following a trophyless campaign - appears to have paved the way. "I was coach at Borussia Dort-mund and Bayern Munich so after the resignation of Voller it would be a logical step for me to be German national coach," Hitzfeld informed newspaper Die Welt on Thursday. "Of course I will speak to DFB president Gerhard Mayer Vorfelder. He is a friend of mine after bringing me to VfB Stuttgart as a player." Mayer Vorfelder admitted 55-year-old Hitzfeld was one of the contenders to take over the reins. "It is clear that the name of Ottmar Hitzfeld will figure in our thinking," said Vorfelder. "But I am not willing to sit here and run through a list of candidates." While Hitzfeld has put himself forward for the role he acknowledged there were doubts about returning to a high-profile post so soon. "It would be an honour to be German national boss but I have to do some thinking," admitted Hitzfeld. "After leaving Bayern I wanted to take time to get away from football." The intense media glare at Bayern was something Hitzfeld wanted to get away from but it will be doubled should he take over as German national coach. "I would like to take a post with less pressure," Hitzfeld said on leaving Bayern. A former maths teacher, Hitzfeld won two domestic championships at Dortmund (1996, 1997) and four German titles at Bayern (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003) and is regarded as one of the finest ever coaches in German football. He is the only manager to win the Champions League at two different clubs with Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern in 2001. Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern president and coach of the 1990 German World Cup-winning team, believes Hitzfeld is the only choice. "It will be difficult to find a successor as there are no magicians," said Beckenbauer. "But looking forward to the 2006 World Cup there is only man who can guide Germany - Ottmar Hitzfeld. "Without putting pressure on Mayer Vorfelder I would say he would be the logical choice. He is the best coach available to the national team and is not under contract." Hitzfeld knows all about the qualities of players in the German national team with Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jens Jeremies and Oliver Kahn all playing under him at Bayern. Greece's German coach Otto Rehhagel, who has guided the nation to the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 for the first time in their history, is the other name to emerge, but is a firm outsider. Rehhagel was known as 'King Otto' after winning two German championships, two German Cups and the UEFA Cup with Werder Bremen and has elevated his status to near royalty in Greece after this triumph.
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