Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was today unveiled as the new national team head coach. Voss-Tecklenburg answered questions from journalists on the stage with DFB President Reinhard Grindel, Oliver Bierhoff, Joti Chatzialexiou amongst others at the DFB centre in Frankfurt.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg on…
…the new role: I am a child of the DFB. I played my first international at only 16 years old, at a time when not many people had done that. It is the icing on the cake to now be appointed as head coach of the national team. It will be challenging but also extremely exciting. I am confident in my own ability and potential to take on this responsibility. I know that we can still improve a lot and also that the players and staff are ready for the challenge. I am really looking forward to the next international break in January and getting to know the players. I know a lot of the players but I only know the young players based on their style of play. Horst Hrubesch laid down the foundations and I am really pleased because that means that the players have the hunger to improve.
…her style of coaching: I base a lot of it on trusting the players and I am very transparent with every player. I want to give the players the self-confidence to trust in their own ability but I also want to help show them where they can improve. I am a team player and like to give the players responsibility to gain their own experience.
…her playing style: I really want to play attacking football with lots of pace. I want my team to try and get in behind and play attractive football. We want to be offensive with and without the ball. My players need to able to play well in one-on-one situations and be confident in their ability. We have lots of exciting, young players. We also need to have a system that can adapt to different situations, which means that the players need to know their roles.
…the conversation with Joachim Löw: I had already met him and I am very thankful to be able to use this new wave of ideas and thinking in the national teams. They will be extremely helpful for women’s football and will open up new opportunities.
…the lead up to the 2019 World Cup in France: We have already decided against having a tournament in March because the players would not have an adequate rest and will be playing too much football in preparation for a World Cup. We have planned to visit France after the first international break and we will play one or two games. We have a period between January and March to work with the team. We also need to play friendlies to test ourselves and try and find areas in which we need to improve.
…her target for the tournament: I would like to get to know the players first and then you can ask me in April what our aims will be for the World Cup. We definitely want to become the best team in the world again. I want to become a world champion because I haven’t managed that so far. We also have the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo to look forward to.
…working with the youth teams: We all have the same aim. We want to advance as far as possible in tournaments because the experience the players will gain is invaluable. The more experience a young player gets, the more they can bring to the table when they become full internationals. Other football associations in Europe have invested a lot in their youth teams. We are carefully watching and seeing how other countries become successful. We also know what we need to do. We need to also speak to the head coaches at club level and let them know what we are trying to do and try and get them on board. We need to use the clubs as a foundation for the players to work on and improve.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was today unveiled as the new national team head coach. Voss-Tecklenburg answered questions from journalists on the stage with DFB President Reinhard Grindel, Oliver Bierhoff, Joti Chatzialexiou amongst others at the DFB centre in Frankfurt.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg on…
…the new role: I am a child of the DFB. I played my first international at only 16 years old, at a time when not many people had done that. It is the icing on the cake to now be appointed as head coach of the national team. It will be challenging but also extremely exciting. I am confident in my own ability and potential to take on this responsibility. I know that we can still improve a lot and also that the players and staff are ready for the challenge. I am really looking forward to the next international break in January and getting to know the players. I know a lot of the players but I only know the young players based on their style of play. Horst Hrubesch laid down the foundations and I am really pleased because that means that the players have the hunger to improve.
…her style of coaching: I base a lot of it on trusting the players and I am very transparent with every player. I want to give the players the self-confidence to trust in their own ability but I also want to help show them where they can improve. I am a team player and like to give the players responsibility to gain their own experience.
…her playing style: I really want to play attacking football with lots of pace. I want my team to try and get in behind and play attractive football. We want to be offensive with and without the ball. My players need to able to play well in one-on-one situations and be confident in their ability. We have lots of exciting, young players. We also need to have a system that can adapt to different situations, which means that the players need to know their roles.
…the conversation with Joachim Löw: I had already met him and I am very thankful to be able to use this new wave of ideas and thinking in the national teams. They will be extremely helpful for women’s football and will open up new opportunities.
…the lead up to the 2019 World Cup in France: We have already decided against having a tournament in March because the players would not have an adequate rest and will be playing too much football in preparation for a World Cup. We have planned to visit France after the first international break and we will play one or two games. We have a period between January and March to work with the team. We also need to play friendlies to test ourselves and try and find areas in which we need to improve.
…her target for the tournament: I would like to get to know the players first and then you can ask me in April what our aims will be for the World Cup. We definitely want to become the best team in the world again. I want to become a world champion because I haven’t managed that so far. We also have the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo to look forward to.
…working with the youth teams: We all have the same aim. We want to advance as far as possible in tournaments because the experience the players will gain is invaluable. The more experience a young player gets, the more they can bring to the table when they become full internationals. Other football associations in Europe have invested a lot in their youth teams. We are carefully watching and seeing how other countries become successful. We also know what we need to do. We need to also speak to the head coaches at club level and let them know what we are trying to do and try and get them on board. We need to use the clubs as a foundation for the players to work on and improve.
…her career: I went my own way. It was obvious at the beginning that I was going to start my coaching career as part of the Lower Rhein football association. It was so much fun and I had a great time there. I spent nine years coaching every level from U9s up to U21s in order to learn the trade of being a football coach. I then went looking for a new challenge at club level and as one door closed another opened. When I was head coach of the Swiss national team, we reached two finals and I learnt an incredible amount in my time there. This is perhaps the last step of my coaching career, if I had been offered it earlier it would probably have been too early.
…the development of women’s football outside of Germany: It has developed an incredible amount in Spain, Italy and England but not so much in France. Overall, it has improved an unbelievable amount, especially in countries where there are big clubs. Women’s football has now reached a level where it can be taken seriously.
Reinhard Grindel on…
…the past few months: I want to thank Horst Hrubesch again for his work as head coach. He took over the responsibility without any doubts in a difficult time and showed his competence and qualities as a person to get the players fired up again. He overcame the difficult times and found a playing system that has led the team to qualification for the World Cup. Qualification was really important because it would have been a big setback if we did not manage to qualify. He has put the team in a great place for 2019, together with the backroom staff of Britta Carlson, Thomas Nörenberg and Michael Fuchs.
…the new head coach: We cannot wait to start working with Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. She was our number one target. We are convinced that she will bring great success to the team. She produced great things in Switzerland as well as at Duisburg. I would also like to emphasise that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was our first choice for this position. She is open to innovation and I fully expect her to carry on the development of youth players into the first team. The fact that she is also on the committee at Fortuna Düsseldorf shows how highly regarded she is.
Oliver Bierhoff on…
…the new head coach: I am delighted to welcome Martina Voss-Tecklenburg on board and I am convinced that she will continue to improve the position of women’s football. We want to develop women’s football just as much as men’s football and we want both to get back to being the world’s best again. We want to support women’s football with more resources. Martina has a strong personality, which you need in this position. The contract expires in summer 2021 but it was important for us to get the process started already in order to give the coaching team enough time to implement ideas. We want to do ourselves proud in the World Cup and also qualify for the Olympics.
Joti Chatzialexiou on…
…the conversations with Voss-Tecklenburg: The conversations went really well. We were eager to find a head coach that already had international experience. She was our number one candidate and fitted our ideas perfectly. We are happy to have come to an agreement with her and now have a team that can lead us back to the best in the world again. We had decided that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was the ideal candidate when her time as Switzerland head coach was coming to an end.
