Germany coach Loew appoints Flick as assistant

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Wednesday August 23, 2006

Frankfurt- Germany coach Joachim Loew Wednesday appointed former Bayern Munich midfielder Hansi Flick as co-trainer of the national team. Flick, 41, who won the German league title four times with Bayern Munich between 1985 and 1990, will join Loew and the German team for European Championship qualifying matches next week.

Between 2002 and November last year Flick was coach of third division regional league side TSG Hoffenheim before joining Red Bull Salzburg at the start of this season as sports coordinator and co-trainer to Giovanni Trapattoni and Lothar Matthaeus.

The Austrian club has released him for the Germany appointment.

"This is a great challenge for me and something I am really looking forward to," said Flick, whose full name is Hans-Dieter.

Flick will be on the touchline with Loew for Germany's Euro 2008 qualifiers against Ireland in Stuttgart on September 2 and San Marino away four days later.

"Hans-Dieter Flick is an outstanding addition to our coaching staff and I am looking forward to working with him," said Loew, who was assistant to Juergen Klinsmann for the past two years before taking on the chief coaching post after the World Cup.

"He fits the profile I wanted for my assistant in that he represents an attacking football philosophy and has followed new paths in his coaching career."

As a player, Flick's most successful period was with Bayern Munich where he played 104 matches before joining Cologne for three years.

Meanwhile a German opinion poll shows overwhelming confidence that Loew will be just as good as Klinsmann as national team coach.

Three out of every four persons asked for the weekly magazine Stern believed Loew would continue the good work carried out by Klinsmann who took Germany to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Only 6 per cent of those asked believed Loew was a bad coach, with 5 per cent saying he would be even better than Klinsmann.

The poll was carried out shortly after Germany's 3-0 victory over Sweden in a friendly international last Wednesday.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur