Episode 6: And the government shall be upon his shoulders

20 years ago, a German revolution.

Having left Germany (prior to the Bosman ruling!) to play in Italy, France and England, Jürgen Klinsmann had never, during his playing career, been part of the informal coterie of German football. On the contrary, the intercultural openness transmitted by his mobility and his learning of foreign languages had given him a clear-eyed view of the self-satisfaction, provincialism and narrow-mindedness of the institutional and media conglomerate that ruled over a sport permeating the whole of society.

In 2004, he was fully aware that the window opened by the desperate search for a saviour would close quickly and that, once he had entered the heart of the system, he would have to act swiftly and disruptively.

To a few quality media outlets – the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, DER SPIEGEL and DIE ZEIT – he dispensed aphorisms on the role of the reformer which, strung together, read like the key takeaways of ‘Change Management for Dummies’:

• “When you implement reforms, you inevitably put yourself at risk.”

• “Where responsibilities are redistributed, resistance is a logical consequence.”

• “To lead means to serve a cause.”

• “Good leadership means explanation and justification. It is never just about orders and obedience.”

• “Innovation comes from inspiration drawn from outside one’s bubble.”

• “We must challenge rituals and habits. There’s nothing wrong with that!”

• “Reform is not a process that happens in stages. Reform must become a permanent state.”

The last two of the list must have been duly noted down by Angela Merkel, since she quoted them word for word ten years later, during a tribute on the occasion of Klinsmann’s induction into the tiny club (comprising five men and two women at the time) of ‘honorary captains of the Nationalmannschaft’. In doing so she drew, like so many before her, a parallel between football and politics. What she did not say was that, when it came to reforming a system of vested interests and old habits, Klinsmann had shown far more courage than she had...

It is interesting to note that all the credible testimonies that are available – from the players and staff, but also from the director Sönke Wortmann, who had accompanied the team for a long period to film a German version of the French 1998 documentary ‘Les Yeux dans les Bleus’ and who compiled his personal observations in a sort of diary – Klinsmann appears to have put into practice a style of change management that fully respected all principles listed above.

It is no doubt for this reason that, despite the brevity of his tenure – barely two years – he managed to leave behind a surprisingly lasting legacy.

Next (and final) episode : I know that my redeemer liveth.