Jurgen Klinsmann has been hired as the new United States men's national team coach, the USSF announced on Friday. The announcement confirms what had been widely rumored ever since Bob Bradley was suddenly fired on Thursday. Klinsmann becomes the program's fifth head coach since 1991 and the team's first foreign-born manager since Bora Milutinović, who led the team from 1991-95.
Jurgen Klinsmann Hired As U.S. National Team Coach
“We are excited to have Jürgen as the head coach of our Men’s National Team,” USSF President Sunil Gulati said in a release. “He is a highly accomplished player and coach with the experience and knowledge to advance the program. Jürgen has had success in many different areas of the game and we look forward to the leadership he will provide on and off the field.”
Klinsmann is best known as a coach for helping turn around a German team that had started to underachieve. Prior to his taking over, Germany had failed to make it out of the group stage of the 2004 European Championship. Within two years, he had guided the Germans to a third place finish in the 2006 World Cup. Perhaps more importantly, he is also credited with revamping their entire program, something the USSF will likely be asking him to do here.
After resigning from his Germany post, he eventually took a job as the manager of Bayern Munich in 2008. That did not go quite as well. Taking over a team that was the reigning UEFA Champions League winner, he lasted less than a full season after getting knocked out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals. Since then, he has spent time as a TV analyst, as running a consulting firm, SoccerSolutions which has been hired by Toronto FC to help turn around that struggling franchise.
Klinsmann has reportedly been the object of USSF President Sunil Gulati’s affection for quite some time. Gulati has twice been rumored to have offered Klinsmann the U.S. coaching job, but the negotiations reportedly broke down over the amount of power Klinsmann wanted. It was not immediately apparent if he has been granted such broad oversight, but the timing of this suggests he may have been.
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