World Cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann ‘very positive’ about Euro 2024 for host Germany

SINGAPORE – Jurgen Klinsmann knows what it takes for a national football team to be successful.

He was, after all, a key member of the West Germany side who triumphed at the 1990 Fifa World Cup, before winning Euro 1996 as a unified team.

His countrymen, however, are still reeling from two successive World Cup flops and a round-of-16 exit at Euro 2020.

But Klinsmann, 59, who led Die Mannschaft to a third-place finish at the 2006 World Cup as coach, is convinced that they will bounce back at Euro 2024 on home soil.

“I am very positive about the Euros for Germany,” he told The Sunday Times. “Overall it is a very talented group of players and a coach that is young, enthusiastic and speaks the language of the players a bit closer because he is young.

“So I’m actually pretty positive that they will have a very good European Championship.”

The German legend was in town to watch the Asian Football Confederation Champions League game between Lion City Sailors and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Wednesday.

Coach of the South Korea national team since February, Klinsmann was here ahead of Nov 16’s World Cup qualifier in Seoul against Singapore to have a closer look at Jeonbuk’s Korea internationals and the Sailors’ national players.

While he now leads a talented Korean side, Klinsmann will always be remembered by fans as one of Germany’s top strikers in the 1980s and 1990s – he scored 47 goals in 108 games for them and in 2004 he was named in the Fifa 100 list of “125 Greatest Living Footballers”.

His star power has not faded since. On Wednesday, he was mobbed by fans outside the Jalan Besar Stadium and he happily obliged their requests for wefies and autographs.

And while Germany has produced numerous football talents like Klinsmann, Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthaus, the four-time world champions have been struggling for form in recent years, failing to get out of the group stage at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Much of the post-mortem on what ails German football has been around the lack of a bona fide goalscorer.

To solve their striker crisis, Germany have often opted for a false-nine system using an attacking midfielder.

More recently, coach Julian Nagelsmann has relied on Niclas Fullkrug, a 30-year-old forward who has had a career resurgence.

Klinsmann – who also managed Bayern Munich and the United States team – is a fan of Fullkrug, noting that it is vital that the Borussia Dortmund striker stays fit.

He said: “They have Fullkrug and actually even if he is a latecomer in his career, he’s actually pretty good.

“I like him and I think he can fulfil that role (of goalscorer).

“If he is not available... then there is an issue, there is a problem because the way Germany always operated over the decades is relying on a good No. 9.”

The key to solving their striker woes lies with Bundesliga teams, as he hopes that “the clubs in Germany can change their approach a little bit in educating young strikers for the No. 9 role”.

Klinsmann, who was known for his goalscoring prowess and intelligence on the field, scored 232 goals in 516 games during a 17-year club career with successful spells at Bayern, Italian side Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur.

While it may not bring the same level of joy he felt putting the ball into the back of a net, discussing football and a forward’s role still gets Klinsmann excited.

During the interview, his eyes lit up as he explained how tactics had evolved and made No. 9s a rare breed – but not for long.

He said: “That (the role of a forward) changed a little bit because of coaches who wanted to utilise other tactical approaches...

“They took one striker out and played with a 4-2-3-1 which becomes a 4-5-1... so they sacrificed the striker position over the last 15 years.

“But those are tactical kinds of shifts that happen over years by fantastic coaches. I think in the future maybe coaches will go back into a 4-4-2 with two real strikers, some might do a 4-4-1-1.

“The No. 9 position still has its big importance in football now.

“If you look at the big teams in the world like Barcelona with (Robert) Lewandowski, Harry Kane with Bayern Munich and (Erling) Haaland with Manchester City... if you have a fantastic No. 9, you can win real trophies and win a lot of games.”