Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann on FIFA World Coach of Year short list

U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann was included on Tuesday among 10 FIFA World Coach of the Year nominees. His former Germany assistant turned World Cup-winning coach, Joachim Low, also made the list and is the top contender.

Klinsmann, 50, makes the list for the first time and is also the first U.S. coach to be included on FIFA's short list since the award's inception in 2010. It is also the first time that any U.S. men's coach has made the long list of any major award nomination.

Former U.S. women's coach Pia Sundhage won her category in 2012 and in women's soccer a coach related to the sport in the United States has been nominated in each of the award's five years.

The U.S. coach was recognised for taking his XI to the knockout stages of the World Cup after battling out of what was widely regarded as the Group of Death behind Germany and ahead of Ghana and Portugal.

Klinsmann, who won the 1990 World Cup as a player with West Germany, began his coaching career when he was named Germany boss in 2004, only two years before the home World Cup and directly after his predecessor, Rudi Voller, had crashed out of the European Championship in Portugal without a win.

During his two years in charge of Germany, Klinsmann installed the current setup of Die Nationalmannschaft. He installed Low, who had been sacked by Austria Vienna in early 2004, as his assistant coach, and created the general manager position for Oliver Bierhoff.

He then created the "summer fairy tale," despite coming under heavy fire ahead of the World Cup for underperforming in friendly matches, when taking the hosts to the semifinals with young players like Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski.

Klinsmann stepped down after the World Cup, and insisted that Low continue the work they started two years earlier. Bierhoff remained in office, and Hans Flick succeeded Low as the assistant coach. Eight years on, the trio supervised Germany's run to World Cup success.

Six members of that Germany side -- Mario Gotze, Manuel Neuer, Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Lahm and Thomas Muller -- were named on the 23-man Ballon d'Or short list, which also included Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Speaking to a news conference in Munich on Tuesday, the Bundesliga champions' coach, Pep Guardiola -- who was named to the long list -- said that he was "very proud that six FC Bayern Munich players" have made the short list. He added: "If players win major titles with their teams and are successful they have a huge chance to win the Ballon d'Or."

However, despite winning the first major trophy for Germany since the 1996 European Championship, precedent does not favour Low. For the 2010 award, Spain head coach Vicente del Bosque finished second behind Jose Mourinho, who won the treble with Inter Milan in 2009-10 before taking charge at Real Madrid.

But, two years later, Del Bosque was given the FIFA World Coach of the Year accolade after helping Spain to retain the European Championship.

The World Coach of the Year list did not include Costa Rica boss Jorge Luis Pinto, despite taking the CONCACAF nation to the World Cup quarterfinal, where they suffered a penalty shootout defeat against Louis van Gaal's Netherlands. No other CONCACAF coach made the short list, with only Argentina's Alejandro Sabella breaking the European dominance along with Klinsmann.

#INSERT type:image caption:Jurgen Klinsmann is the first U.S. men's coach to be included as a FIFA World Coach of the Year nominee. END#

Since being named the U.S. head coach in July 2011, Klinsmann took the Americans to historic wins against Italy in February 2012 -- the 1-0 being the first win against the four-time World Cup winners since 1934 -- and their first win against Mexico in the Estadio Azteca later that year.

In 2013, the U.S. defeated Germany 4-3 during Joachim Low's summer tour and also won the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

U.S. Soccer tweeted the news of Klinsmann's nomination on Tuesday.

Despite controversially dropping veteran forward Landon Donovan from the final World Cup squad, Klinsmann garnered general support in the United States after the Americans opened in Brazil with a 2-1 victory against Ghana.

A total of 25 million Americans, including 18.2 million viewers on ESPN, watched the 2-2 World Cup draw with Portugal on matchday two. The final between Germany and Argentina was the most watched football match in America in the competition's history, with a total of 27.3 million viewers.

FIFA World Coach of the Year nominees: Carlo Ancelotti (Italy/Real Madrid), Antonio Conte (Italy/Juventus/Italy national team), Pep Guardiola (Spain/Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany/U.S. national team), Joachim Low (Germany/Germany national team), Jose Mourinho (Portugal/Chelsea), Manuel Pellegrini (Chile/Manchester City), Alejandro Sabella (Argentina/Argentina national team), Diego Simeone (Argentina/Atletico Madrid), Louis van Gaal (Netherlands/Netherlands national team/Manchester United).

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