Flick to become new Germany coach after Euro 2020

Berlin (AFP) – Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick will succeed his former boss Joachim Loew in the Germany dugout after Euro 2020, the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Tuesday.

“It’s all gone surprisingly quickly, but I am very happy to be Germany coach from the autumn,” said Flick, 56, after signing a three-year contract to succeed Loew.

“I am hugely excited, because I see the class of players, and especially young players, which we have in Germany.”

Flick, who was assistant coach to Loew when Germany won the 2014 World Cup, has long been the favourite to take over from Loew, who will leave the job after 15 years in charge later this year.

“He was top of my wish list from the very start,” said national team director Oliver Bierhoff.

Flick, who also worked as DFB sporting director between 2014 and 2017, has made a name for himself as one of Europe’s top coaches in two glittering years at perennial Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich. 

After taking over from predecessor Niko Kovac with the club in a mid-season crisis, he led Bayern to only their second ever treble in 2020.

The following year, he led the club to a ninth successive Bundesliga title.

Yet after a feud with sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic over recruitment, Flick asked for his contract to be terminated prematurely at the end of the season.

He will be succeeded on the Bayern bench by 33-year-old coaching prodigy Julian Nagelsmann, who joins the Bavarians from Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig next season.