Hansi Flick has resigned as the sporting director of Germany’s football association. Horst Hrubesch, who coached Germany to a silver medal Rio Olympic Games, has replaced him on an interim basis.Hansi Flick’s 10-year stint at the German football association (DFB) has come to an end, after the DFB announced that they had parted ways with their sporting director.
“The DFB has on this Monday granted the wish of sporting director Hansi Flick that he be released from his contract, which runs until 2019. Flick had expressed the request to take time out from his career in conversations with [DFB] President Reinhard Grindel and General Secretary Dr. Friedrich Curtius,” the statement said.
Flick, 51, began his decade at the DFB in 2006 as an assistant to national team head coach Joachim Löw. He took over as the DFB’s sporting director after Germany won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“I am grateful to the board for their understanding,” Flick said in the statement. “Behind me lie 10 great years at the DFB. It was an exciting, successful but also intense time.”
Flick said that he had issued the request so that he could spend more time with his family, and that there was “neither a sporting ambition” nor any other “problem” that had led to his decision.
“Hansi Flick has given great service to German football in 10 years with the DFB,” Grindel said. “It is with a heavy heart that we allow him to leave, however, we respect his personal wishe.”
Hrubesch takes over
The DFB has named former youth team coach Horst Hrubesch as Flick’s interim replacement. Hrubesch, 65, has coached various age levels since 2000, winning the under-19 European championship in 2008 and the under-21 European championship in 2009. He last coached Germany at the 2016 Olympics, winning a silver medal at the Rio Games.
“Hansi Flick has done excellent work in the past few years and has set things up very well,” Hrubesch said. “An important task for all of us in the coming months will be to create good conditions for the upcoming under-21 Euros and the Confderations Cup. Otherwise my focus will be on being successful at the under-19 European championship in Georgia and the under-20 World Cup in South Korea.”
dv/pfd (dpa/SID)
