German Federation doctor Meyer praises Blow when saying goodbye: Corona is the most annoying time

Hansi Flick Needs a new team doctor as national coach for UEFA EURO 2024. Tim Meyer (55) retires from the DFB team 21 years after the World Cup in Qatar. “At some point you reach an age where you can imagine doing other things than running to the edge of the pitch and handing the water bottle to footballers,” the 55-year-old explains his decision in an interview with dpa. . And he had informed the national coach Flick of this immediately after the national team lost the World Cup on its way back from Qatar.

Subsequently, Meyer, Medical Director of the Institute for Sport and Preventive Medicine at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, describes the “most stressful” and at the same time “most unpleasant” time. Corona epidemics. “There was a lot of pressure there. All of a sudden the players who tested positive on arrival or a few days later showed up. And as a doctor, you’re in the midst of a massive churn of swabs and avoiding contact. You get a feeling of helplessness from time to time,” he adds. Precautionary measures, I thought in the team hotel: I hope no one wakes up in the morning and starts coughing.

Praising Löw, he “broke” under Klinsmann

However, Meyer can look back on mostly good experiences, such as the World Cup on home soil in 2006, which he found very impressive. But the World Cup in Brazil tops the list for him, “especially because we won it.” In any tournament before or after, he participated as a doctor in preparation as in 2014.

Mayer has faced four national coaches during his career – from Rudi Voller to Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Low Even flick. “Of course, these coaches were very different personalities,” he says. Longtime national team coach Löw learned to “appreciate strangely. The confidence he gave was great to work with. Jogi had a really steady hand and was able to delegate.”

Klinsmann’s arrival after the qualifying round in 2004 meant “a real break in managing the national team”. He pushed a lot, pushed for fundamental changes. Jürgen sparked many innovations, but also sparked various conflicts due to overlapping competencies that may not have always been intended.

But what has changed the most in general are the players. The generation that grew up in the Bundesliga’s youth academies, the retired team doctor noted, “learned a completely different, more sport-oriented way of life than in the past”.