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He is said to have a good tactical understanding.
He also has the gift, say those who have worked with or under him, to inspire players for his ideas and to get them to put their own ego aside for the success of the team.
"The adhesive", as Stefan Kuntz himself once put it, "between everything is the team spirit."
Individual tables at the meal
The 58-year-old coach of the German U21 national soccer team knows that he will be the main factor when the German offspring tries to play a successful European championship under the leadership of Kuntz on Wednesday.
16 teams take part in the tournament.
In the preliminary round there are four groups of four for the tickets for the knockout phase.
The German selection must be at least second in the group in the duels with hosts Hungary on Wednesday (9 p.m. / ProSieben), the Netherlands (March 27) and Romania (March 30).
Due to the pandemic, the tournament was divided into two parts: after the group phase, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final between May 31 and June 6 follow.
It's a long and difficult path that the German team has to go.
Stefan Kuntz is challenged - especially in days like these, when people often deal with completely different things due to Corona and the U21 tournament also takes place in two countries (Hungary and Slovenia) that the Robert Koch Institute has identified as areas of high incidence are.
The seven-day incidence in Hungary - where the German selection plays their games in Székesfehérvár and Budapest - was last over 500. Therefore, strict measures apply, in Hungary, for example, there is a night curfew.
Players and other tournament participants are regularly tested and sealed off.
The German U21s use individual tables as an additional measure, for example when eating, in order to be prepared against possible consequences in the event of a positive test.
Joint meetings or the like are only possible after two negative corona tests, as coach Kuntz recently announced.
With the game against Hungary, Stefan Kuntz's U21 team starts into the European Championship tournament
Source: pa / Pressefoto Ba / Cathrin Müller
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There are extraordinary circumstances for a team that is not one of the title favorites.
Other nations are better positioned for this, such as the Netherlands, England, France or defending champions Spain.
"Our primary goal is to even reach the knockout phase," says Kuntz, who won the European Championship title in 2017 with the German U21 team and came second in 2019.
However, the current team does not allow any great hopes for the title.
The focus is primarily on the only 16-year-old Youssoufa Moukoko from Borussia Dortmund.
Players like Ridle Baku, Lukas Nmecha, Arne Maier or Salih Özcan have experience - but Kuntz nominated three players for the goal (Finn Dahmen, Markus Schubert, Lennart Grill), who are only second or third choice in their clubs.
This is an example of a problem among young Germans who hardly get a chance to prove themselves on the first floor.
The fact that Kuntz nominated five players from the second division or had to nominate many more speaks volumes when it comes to the quality of German talent.
Know each other well, get along well: Joachim Löw (left) in conversation with Stefan Kuntz
Source: pa / GES / Matteo Ci / Matteo Ciambelli
Nevertheless, the coach will do everything in his power to play a successful tournament.
He doesn't have to prove himself in his current job, because the successes with the German youngsters in the two previous tournaments speak for the coach.
And yet you will look closely at how Kuntz will fare.
He's also one of the candidates who have a chance to inherit Joachim Löw if he gives up his position as national coach after 15 years in the summer after the European Championships.
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When Kuntz was asked about this possibility a few days ago, he blocked it.
DFB director Oliver Bierhoff said, Kuntz emphasized, that the DFB took its time: “So it's clear that my head is now concentrating on the U21s.” Only working with them would count.
“When the tournament is over, I think you can talk and think about other things,” he said at a press conference: “I can't rave about the strengths of our opponents on the one hand, and then our U21s would have Team also has a coach who's thinking about something else. ”But he does not deny an interest in the office of national coach.
Oliver Bierhoff values Stefan Kuntz.
When asked by WELT, the former striker said at a press conference on Monday about the former striker that the contract extension would show that his work was viewed positively.
“I've known Stefan for a long time.
When we were 18, we went to training at Bayer Uerdingen together.
He's a strong communicator and really immersed himself in the job.
He is held in high esteem in the association.
We
keep our fingers crossed for
him that he can (
at the U21 European Championship,
usually) add what he has proven and shown in previous tournaments. "
"We have no time pressure"
According to Bierhoff, a succession plan with a coach who is already employed by the DFB cannot be ruled out.
“We also have good solutions within the DFB.
That makes you calmer, "said the 52-year-old.
In addition to Bierhoff, the most important decision-makers in DFB President Fritz Keller, Deputy Chief Peter Peters and General Secretary Friedrich Curtius are currently also living in the team hotel in Düsseldorf.
“We don't have time without end, but we are not pressed for time,” said Bierhoff.
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How big the chances of the Löw legacy are for Kuntz, who won the European championship title with Bierhoff in England in 1996, is open anyway.
In any case, he owes his job as coach of the German U21 team to a man who is given far more chances for the post of national coach than him - Hans-Dieter Flick.
However, the FC Bayern coach has a contract with the Munich team that runs until 2023 and, according to his superiors, should please fulfill it.
When Kuntz took over the coaching position of Horst Hrubesch in the German junior team in 2016, it was a surprise, as Kuntz hadn't worked as a coach for almost twelve years and before that, he hadn't caused a stir at his stations in Neuenkirchen, Karlsruhe, Mannheim or Ahlen taken care of.
But Flick, then sports director at the DFB, saw the former Bundesliga top scorer Kuntz as the ideal coach for the German U21s and whether his successes were subsequently confirmed in his decision.