Former West Germany legend, Berti Vogts has expressed his interest in returning to the Bundesliga after leaving his post as Azerbaijan manager.
The highly experienced 67-year-old, ended his six-year tenure as Azerbaijan coach, following Monday’s 6-0 defeat away to Croatia.
Despite narrowly losing to Italy 2-1 on 10th October, Vogts has been unable to rally his team to a single point in the current European Championship qualifying faze, with the “Milli” currently Rock bottom of Group H.
Although, Vogts has been successful in bringing unprecedented success to the national team, he was unable to guide Azerbaijan to a first major tournament, during his time as manager.
After holding a meeting with Rovnag Abdullaev, the President of the Azerbaijan Football Federation on Thursday in Zϋrich, Vogts decided to step down as manager, despite an array of pleas.
A world well travelled
For the past 13 years, the former West Germany international has managed in the international scene with Kuwait, Scotland, Nigeria and lastly Azerbaijan being his most recent employers.
Sandwiched in between guiding Germany to the Euro 1996 title in England, and his tenure as Kuwait manager, Vogts enjoyed his first taste as a domestic coach during the 2000-01 Bundesliga season when he led Bayer Leverkusen to a fourth place finish.
Although he was ultimately sacked just one year into his contract at the German giants, the former Borussia Mönchengladbach insists that he would relish another job within the Bundesliga, albeit not as a manager but as a Sports Director or Team Manager.
Talking about his plans for the near future, Vogts told German newspaper Bild: “I definitely don’t want to spend every day on the training field. I would like to be either a Sports-Director, Team-Manager or on the Board.”
Although Vogts turned Azerbaijan from whipping-boys into minnows with a nasty bite, the 67-year-old has no regrets about walking out on the small footballing nation, just three games into their qualification for Euro 2016.
Unprofessional
The 1974 World Cup winner, says that he centred his departure based on his inability to help Azerbaijan develop even further as an international power.
Vogts has also enjoyed a dig at his former employers by admitting that everyone involved with the national team is “unprofessional” and lacking in determination to better themselves.
The 67-year-old also urged Abdullaev to allow the national team to spend the day after the defeat away to Italy in rehabilitation, something which was ignored by the 49 year old.
A reflecting Vogts went on to say: “For years I have always thought that we could work and train harder. But World Champions Germany train harder than a smaller team like Azerbaijan can.
It was impossible to force this type of training on my players. I even asked for the day after the Italy game to be used as a day centred on rehabilitation training. Everything has been unprofessional.”
For the time being at least, Vogts will carefully access his future before making the decision to return to the world of football.
Bakudaily.Az
