BERLIN -- Juergen Klinsmann has always done things a little differently.
While his teammates at Inter Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and Monaco drove
Porsches and BMWs, Klinsmann tooled around in a blue '67 Volkswagen Beetle with
a Snoopy sticker on the dashboard. Instead of living in Germany, where he's as
celebrated as Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods in the United States, he settled in
California, where his wife grew up. And when he got the itch to play some
pick-up games a few years back, he hooked up with a developmental league team in
southern California.
So it should have come as no surprise that when he was hired two years ago to
coach Germany, Klinsmann wasn't going to do things the old way.
"He's a forward thinker," said friend and U.S. coach Bruce Arena. "He thinks
differently than other people, and he's a modern thinker. He's not willing to
accept what's been done in the past. That's certainly caught the Germans by
surprise because, in a lot of ways, they're traditionalists. He had a new way of
thinking."
Klinsmann was one of the best players Germany ever produced, a strong,
opportunistic striker who could create a goal out of nothing. He led Germany to
its third World Cup title in 1990 and was the first player to score three goals
in three different tournaments. He also won two UEFA Cups, one with Inter and
one with Bayern Munich, and a Bundesliga title. He was player of the year in
Germany twice and in England once.
He could have had riches and fame to last a lifetime, but material things
have never really mattered to Klinsmann. He didn't even have an agent when he
played, negotiating his own contracts.
"It's just not important to him," said Mark Verstegen, a friend and founder
of Athletes Performance, the training group that works with the German team. "I
don't think I've ever seen him wear a fancy watch. He's just Juergen."
When he retired in 1998, Klinsmann left all the trappings behind. He and
American wife Debbie decided to raise their two children in the United States.
In Germany -- or anywhere in Europe, for that matter -- Klinsmann would be news
whatever he did.
And if his son, Jonathan, happened to take up his father's game,
photographers and reporters would be sure to follow, even if it was just a kids'
league.
In sun-kissed Orange County, though, the 41-year-old Klinsmann is just
another good-looking blond. On a rare occasion he's recognized, but for the most
part he basks in anonymity.
"I didn't want to live in the past," Klinsmann told USA Today last December.
"I wanted to start the second chapter in my life."
Starting a new chapter didn't mean forgetting everything he'd already
written. He became a partner in a soccer marketing and business development
group, got involved with the U.S. team, consulted with the Los Angeles Galaxy of
MLS and appeared at U.S. Soccer Federation youth clinics.
But when Klinsmann accepted the Germany job, many of his friends were
surprised.
"I was because I think Juergen was not yet set on whether he wanted to have
involvement in soccer on the technical side. He had interest on the management
side," Arena said.
Still, it was a dream to restore Germany's program. It had won three World
Cups and was surprise runner-up to Brazil in 2002 but was struggling in 2004,
losing in the first round of the European Championship -- failing to win a game.
Two coaches rejected the job. When Klinsmann took it, he promised a shake-up.
Little did anyone realize how serious he was.
He hired Verstegen's group, who introduced the Germans to distinctly American
equipment like elastic cords for stretching. He brought in sports psychologists.
He overhauled the team's practices and ditched Germany's slow, predictable pace
for a high-octane attack. He chose longtime backup goalkeeper Jens Lehmann over
Oliver Kahn and gave Kahn's captaincy to Michael Ballack.
"I said, `Are you sure this is something that you really want to do?"'
Verstegen said. "And you know Juergen. He said `Absolutely.' I said, `You know
what you're getting yourself into?' And he said, `Yep, we all know."'
Said Klinsmann: "I knew if I put the right staff together and got the right
mixture that we could develop something special. It's a new approach, and we
believe in that approach."
Perhaps most galling to Germans was his insistence on living in California.
He hired Oliver Bierhoff to handle logistics and day-to-day business while
assistant coach Joachim Loew worked with players. Klinsmann commuted to Germany
several times a month and stayed in contact with his players via e-mail,
telephone and video conferencing.
It's little different than what Brazil's Carlos Alberta Parreira does with
most of his players based in Europe. Guus Hiddink continued to coach in the
Netherlands after taking over Australia.
But not living in Europe is one thing. Being almost an American is quite
another.
"The United States is a sore point for everybody in the world," Arena said.
"It doesn't mesh with anybody in the world in terms of this sport, but it's
getting there."
