Bundesliga coach Baumgart made strong allegations against Hansi Flick

When things don’t go well for the national team, the job of the national coach is what the world thanks most, as they say. Because everyone thinks they know best, suddenly there are 80 million federal coaches in Germany. This was already the case under Jogi Löw and is now no different under his successor Hansi Flick.

In addition to the many potential national coaches, there are also people like Steven Baumgart who are already coaches and know what it means to lead a professional team. Over the past two years, the 51-year-old has transformed relegation favorites 1. FC Köln into a stable in the Bundesliga that even played for international places for long stretches of last season.

Baumgart, who prepared for next season with his team in Maria Alm, Austria, last week, is now commenting on ailing national coach Hansi Flick. Above all, the colonial citizen has a clear say in his personal decisions.

Baumgart criticizes Flick, coach of the German Federation, for his dealings with Thomas Muller

Basically, he thinks Hansi Flick is good as a national coach, Baumgart says in an interview with Bild am Sonntag. But then he criticized, “I’ll put it this way: We had a World Cup in Russia that didn’t go well. Then some of our best players scared us.”

What Baumgart means by that: Since Flick took over as national coach in August 2021, he has increasingly relied on young players, thus helping players like Florian Wirtz and Karim Adeyemi to make their national team debuts. “Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller – suddenly they weren’t good enough. Instead, we convinced ourselves that we had to count on young people,” says Baumgart.

DFB coach Hansi Flick is now increasingly counting on Thomas Müller again. Image: IMAGO Images/Team 2

However, they still have the problem that they can’t stand the pressure on the national team like the well-known players. “Musiala and Wirtz are two talents – nothing more. Yes, the best talents I would like to have also in the team, but they still live on players like Müller and Kimmich,” Baumgart explained.

How deserving national players are treated in Germany is something the Cologne coach doesn’t like anyway. “Every other nation allows its 36-year-old heroes to play until they can no longer walk. Because they’re just the best.” Germany, on the other hand, “disintegrates” its best players, Baumgart says.