Pfannenstiel's world: a piece of furniture called Löw

Lutz Pfannenstiel has played on all continents in his professional career: 25 clubs in 13 countries, read in "Unsustainable - My adventures as a world goalkeeper". He is currently preparing St. Louis City SC as sports director for the start of the MLS from the 2023 season. Previously, he was responsible for scouting at TSG Hoffenheim and was the sports director at Fortuna Düsseldorf. Pfannenstiel, 48, also works as a TV expert for ZDF, BBC and DAZN. He was an international expert at the DFB and a trainer instructor at FIFA. Pfannenstiel accompanies the European Football Championship (June 11 to July 11) as an expert for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

I'm from Lower Bavaria, but I like the English language. She has very beautiful paraphrases for many things. An example is:

. This doesn't just mean a piece of furniture, it sometimes also describes people who are, well, a bit old. Inventory that you have got used to.

It is the same with Jogi Löw. At some point, his face as a national coach was just as normal as the synthetic leather armchair in the corner of the living room. Jogi, the young, greedy silverback, has become something like a mushroom head shining silver and yesterday in the media image. I don't want to say that the stove is out, but the spark, the last fire, has not jumped over from the national team to the fans. And that was the case before Corona, when tens of thousands were allowed to enter the stadiums.

This is not unusual, for coaches the best-before date is simply reached at some point.

It affects each of them.

Even Jürgen Klopp in Dortmund, he was made for this club.

Löw has been national coach for fifteen years now, and that's almost a lifetime in football.

Especially since there is hardly any other coach in the world who is under such pressure every two years.

One last hurray for Löw

It should be a semi-final at a World Cup or European Championship!

And Jogi delivered.

In five out of six tournaments he reached at least the semi-finals, in 2014 he became world champion - and yet nobody would have been surprised if there had been a replacement after the disastrous World Cup in Russia 2018.

I too could have understood that very well.

And yet I think it's right that the national team go into this European Championship with him. It doesn't just have to do with past successes for which he deserves respect. Football is all about the here and now, about ninety minutes on the pitch. And Jogi still proves that he reaches his players, that the chemistry within the team is right.

I am of the opinion that there will be another quick jerk effect, one last hurray, because the players will go through fire for their coach. All players - including Mats Hummels and Thomas Müller. It would have been easy for them to explain that they are not available at this European Championship. But they are up for the tournament. And they are obviously not resentful because they had already been sorted out by Jogi. And you just don't want to do without Müller. In the Bundesliga he was absolutely outstanding recently.