Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick will succeed his former boss Joachim Löw in the Germany dugout after Euro 2020, the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Tuesday, heralding a new era for an ailing giant of world football.
“It’s all gone surprisingly quickly, but I am very happy to be Germany coach from the autumn,” said Flick, 56, after signing a three-year contract to succeed Löw.
Flick, who was Löw’s assistant coach when Germany won the 2014 World Cup, will now be charged with reviving a national team which has struggled in recent years.
The new boss will take over after the European Championship, and is expected to take charge of his first game in a World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein on September 2.
The 56-year-old has long been the favourite to take over from Löw, who will leave the job after 15 years in charge, a year before his contract ends.
“He was top of my wish list from the very start,” said national team director Oliver Bierhoff.
“Together we have one aim: to get back to the top of world football,” he added.
Flick, who also worked as DFB sporting director between 2014 and 2017, has made a name for himself as one of Europe’s top coaches in two glittering years at perennial Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
After taking over from predecessor Niko Kovac with the club in a mid-season crisis, he led Bayern to only their second ever treble in 2020.
The following year, he took the club to a ninth successive Bundesliga title, his seventh trophy in just 18 months in the Munich dugout.