Germany national team captain Philipp Lahm has some explaining to do after he blasted former Germany coaches Rudi Voellerand Jurgen Klinsmann in his new book “The Subtle Difference,” excerpts of which were published in German daily tabloid Bild.
TheGerman football federation (DFB) said it would meet with Lahm to discuss the “sensitivity of dealing with internal team matters.” Lahm said he did not intend to “offend Voeller, Klinsmann oranyone else” and apologized for the “misunderstandings.”
But it was pretty clear what Lahm thought about Klinsmann’s short tenure as Bayern coach. “The players had toget together before games to discuss how we wanted to play at all,” Lahm wrote. “After six or eight weeks, all the players already knew it wouldn’t work with Klinsmann. The rest ofthe season was damage limitation.”
As for Voeller, Lahm had this to stay about how he ran things during the 2004 European Championship: “Training would be for perhaps an houra day, and then everyone was allowed back to their rooms. I think that many were using Playstations at the time. There were no tactical discussions. There was no video analysis of the next opponent… The only thing we talked about were mistakes that the coach noticed.”
Voeller responded that Lahm “has no decency” for revealing the inner workings of the national team andthat “what’s he’s said now about Klinsmann, for example, is an impertinence. I’m curious to see how the national team bosses handle it.” For now, Lahm remains national teamcaptain.