Berlin (AFP) – Germany’s World Cup-winning head coach Joachim Loew has ruled out taking over at Bayern Munich next season with the runaway Bundesliga leaders hunting for Jupp Heynckes’ successor.
Loew, 58, has a contract with the German FA until 2020 and emphatically ruled out media speculation linking him to Bayern next season.
“That is absolutely not a subject for me,” he told broadcaster ZDF with Germany hosting Brazil in a friendly on Tuesday.
With less than three months to go before the World Cup kicks-off, Loew says he has “other things to worry about” than Bayern.
The Bavarian giants are scouting for a new coach for 2018/19 as Heynckes, 72, has yet to make it clear if he will continue next season.
After 12 highly successful years as the national team’s boss, Bayern would only become a realistic option for Loew if Germany has a disastrous World Cup campaign.
Under Loew, Germany has always reached at least the semi-finals of all major competitions.
His finest hour was the 2014 World Cup triumph, but he also won the Confederations Cup last year with an inexperienced squad in Russia after resting all his star players.
Nevertheless, Bayern are running out of options in the quest to find Heynckes’ successor.
Former Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel has turned them down, according to reports on Sunday.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino, Lucien Favre, currently at Nice, and Eintracht Frankfurt boss Niko Kovac have all been linked to the Bayern job.
According to German daily Bild, the front runner is Ralph Hasenhuettl, currently the boss at RB Leipzig.
The 50-year-old has been targeted by both Bayern and their Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Bild claim Hasenhuettl would cost either club 10 million euros ($12.4m) to buy out of his contract, which expires in June 2019.
Dortmund’s current coach Peter Stoeger, who is unbeaten in his 12 league games since taking charge in December, only has a contract until June.
