Lahm writes autobiography, creates controversy

Germany and FC Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm has gotten himself into serious trouble with his upcoming autobiography, though it hasn't been released so far but only excerpts have been published in the German tabloid Bild.



The book titled 'The Subtle Difference' is about Lahm's observations over the years of his professional career about his coaches and teams. The first excerpts have been about Rudi Voeller, Juergen Klinsmann, Felix Magath and Louis van Gaal; with some harsh criticism from Lahm about their coaching and style of players management.



Philipp Lahm was surprised at the reactions and had to come out with a public statement which said, "Of course, I did not want to attack or offend Rudi Voeller, Juergen Klinsmann and other people. Rather I wanted, as is clear from reading my book, to portray my honest opinion about the work under different coaches and at different times."



All this hasn't gone down well with the football establishment in Germany with even the German FA (DFB) having to come together to discuss if any action would be taken against Lahm but the captain will not lose the armband as many in the German media speculated.



"We want mature players to make their opinions known, however in this case, Philipp has over-stepped the mark," said team manager Oliver Bierhoff.



And the same opinion was German national coach Joachim Loew who said, "There are a few passages in the book which I don't like, because here we have a young player openly criticising his trainer after they have worked together successfully for a long time."



"We will talk about this together next week," Loew added.



The autobiography has come in for heavy criticism by numerous Bundesliga coaches who cannot understand how Lahm could simply write such a book.

rs1.tv VIDEO: Me interviewing Rudi Voeller

I got the chance to speak with Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Director of Sports Rudi Voeller in the half-time break of the FC Remscheid vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen. He did tell me before the interview that he knew about the India job story with the confusion of names with Ruud Krol, which he found really funny.


Here the interview from the local TV station rs1.tv (it is in German).

The Indian 'Rudi' confusion

Thursday was a very active and long day linked to the vacant Indian national team job for me as there was a confusion with the first name of Rudi. I got my first call at 7 a.m. in the morning for a journalist friend of mine who told me that NDTV has just put out a news item that 1990 FIFA World Cup winner Rudi Voeller of Germany is one of the applicants for the India job.

I was still half asleep, but surely I couldn't believe that Voeller would leave his long time job as Director of Sports at Bayer 04 Leverkusen to coach India. And once awake I spoke to friends and contacts to find out if there were any problems at Bayer 04 which could prompt Voeller to leave, but still even if that was the case why would a successful coach and manager leave Germany or for that fact Europe. Someone like Voeller would surely be offered interesting positions here in Europe.

So I spoke to a friend at Bayer 04, who couldn't believe what I said. I send him a YouTube link for the news item and he immediately spoke to Voeller in my name. As I would have expected Voeller had no plans whatsoever to leave Bayer 04, he actually didn't even know that India were looking for a new coach. I got an official statement from the Bundesliga side to clarify things as more and more journalists would get in touch to know what was the story behind such an approach.

Luckily I could clarify that at least Voeller wasn't applying and by afternoon in India even the AIFF confirmed that it had not received any application from Rudi Voeller.

Late that afternoon I would see the name of another candidate - Rudi Krol, a former Dutch international who is currently the coach of South African Premier League side Orlando Pirates, on the Twitter feed of a journalist friend. Then I realised that there could have been a mix-up between the two.

Interestingly it was confirmed late that day that 62 year old Rudolf Jozef Krol, who is nicknamed 'Ruud' or 'Rudi', was amongst the applicants for the job of Indian national coach. But interesting while in India they continue to write Rudi Krol, the Dutch write his name as Ruud Krol.

So the confusion which had started early morning would be cleared by Thursday evening. But surely I will not forget the name Rudi any-time soon, then at least for a few minutes I had hopes of having a German football legend coach India, even though I never thought this was realistically possible.

One also sees how a story can spread across the media, social networks and continents, which is on one side fascinating but also at time could be dangerous.

Voeller to stay in Leverkusen, no knowledge of India job

I just had contact with German Bundesliga side Bayer 04 Leverkusen and this is what they had to officially tell me about Rudi Voeller and his interest to coach India.

We are surprised at the news media reports out of India. The whole story is baseless. Rudi Voeller is and will stay Director of Sports at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Rudi Voeller is not even thinking about ending his successful work in the German Bundesliga to become coach of the Indian national team.

So the whole story about Voeller and his interest to coach Team India is false and baseless. It is clear from the conversation that I have had that Voeller didn't even know that the AIFF is looking for a new India coach.

Still it would be interesting to know who the source of the NDTV story is, which resulted in such huge interest about the Indian football national teams coaching job.


Here a link to the earlier story Rdu Voeller to coach India???

Rudi Voeller to coach India???

I woke up this morning to the news that former German national coach and now Director of Sports at Bayer 04 Leverkusen Rudi Voeller has applied for the job of coach of the Indian national football team.

I couldn't believe it, but when I saw the news clip on NDTV, a reputable Indian news channel, there needs to be a base for the story. I have started to dip a little deeper into the story but so far nothing but denials, so I will try and speak to Voeller himself during the day and update you all.

Here the NDTV clip on Voeller's interest