DOliver Bierhoff’s contract with the German Football Association (DFB), which originally ran until 2024, was terminated prematurely. The DFB and Bierhoff announced this in a joint press release this Monday evening. The relevant DFB committees are now to discuss Bierhoff’s successor.
“I’m paving the way for new course settings,” said the 54-year-old Bierhoff in the statement: “Some decisions that we were convinced of have not turned out to be the right ones. No one regrets that more than me. I take responsibility for that.
DFB on Bierhoff: “Represents great moments”
“I wish the DFB, its many committed employees, all the associations and clubs, institutions and initiatives gathered under its roof and our national teams every success in their important tasks,” said the former professional. He looks “with pride” at the progress made in the association under his direction.
With his decision, even before the crisis talks with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFB Vice Hans-Joachim Watzke announced for this Wednesday, Bierhoff is taking his personal conclusions after the national team was eliminated early again from a major football tournament. “In the 18 years of his work, Oliver Bierhoff has rendered considerable services to German football,” said Watzke on Monday evening. He deserves “respect, recognition and thanks”. It was initially unclear what consequences Hansi Flick’s resignation would have for the future as national coach.
Bierhoff, who came to the DFB in 2004 after the end of his professional career, began his career in the association as manager of the national team, before he was promoted to “Director of National Teams and Academy” in 2018 and finally in 2022 to “Managing Director of National Teams and Academy of DFB GmbH & Co KG “ was promoted. From 2015 he also took over the project management for the planned DFB academy. The DFB praised him as an “innovative driver”. For Bierhoff, however, parallel to the sporting decline of the DFB-Elf followed a continuous loss of acceptance among the fans at the latest after the EM-Aus 2016. His marketing concepts, for example with the claim “The team”, were interpreted negatively.
Nevertheless, during Bierhoff’s time with the DFB, the national team reached at least the semi-finals of six world and European championships in a row and was crowned world champion in 2014. In addition, he won the 2017 Confederations Cup and two U21 European Championship titles. As a player, Bierhoff scored 37 goals in 70 international matches and made Germany European champions in 1996 with his two goals in the final.
