There is still uncertainty among German female footballers about who will coach them after Horst Hrubesch. From the point of view of an ex-player, the association is acting too slowly.

Former international Tabea Kemme has accused the German Football Association (DFB) of lacking courage and foresight in the search for a new coach for the women’s national team. “The DFB is slow – and in my opinion has already missed the opportunity to look around on the international coaching market,” the Rio Olympics champion wrote in a column for the news portal ‘t-online’ at Christmas.

“It would be important for the DFB to show the courage to engage with someone who brings a new, fresh perspective from abroad. The future stands and falls by that,” said the 32-year-old. Horst Hrubesch, 72, is currently in office as interim successor to Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, and is supposed to lead the team to the Olympics in Paris.

Unfortunately, the past has shown that the association “keeps falling back on the same old candidates. I have the feeling that the DFB doesn’t think outside the box enough,” said Kemme.

For example, the Englishwoman Emma Hayes, Jonatan Giráldez from FC Barcelona and Joe Montemurro, currently under contract at Juventus Turin, are highly exciting personalities, but some of them are no longer available. “These are all top people from abroad, at the DFB I always see the same people who have also gone through their own system,” criticized Kemme, 32.

The new director of women’s soccer, Nia Künzer, is someone who “has the necessary leadership skills. With her, this enormously important position in women’s soccer finally has a face,” explained Kemme. It is to be hoped that she also gets the support to push through the tough decisions that she will have to push through.

Künzer will face a lot of opposition from the association, however. “It is clear that the male leaders at the DFB continue to have outdated views and are less open to a woman in a high-ranking position,” said Kemme.