Stefan Kuntz confirms talks with the Turkish Football Association. The federation would like to sign the 58-year-old as the new national coach. A decision has not yet been made, however.
As several Turkish media had initially reported, Kuntz is to succeed Senol Günes, who was sacked a few days ago. The contact was apparently made by Hamit Altintop, who is part of the Turkish federation’s sporting management. The German U-21 coach has even been to Istanbul, which has now been officially confirmed. “At the invitation of the Turkish Football Association, I was in Istanbul for initial talks, but there is no decision to announce yet,” Kuntz announced on Tuesday evening.
The former national player and 1996 European champion already knows Turkish football from his playing days. He played for Besiktas from 1995 to 1996 and played 30 games in the Süper Lig (nine goals, four assists).
A clear DFB commitment had Kuntz dribbling around
Kuntz had repeatedly left his future with the DFB open recently, stating that he wanted to deal with any enquiries “in order to then know what is right for me”. He had also expressed his disappointment with the selection process in the search for a successor to national coach Joachim Löw, partly because a meeting announced by DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff had not materialised.
With the U-21 national team, which he led to the European Championship title in 2017 and 2021 and to the European Championship final in 2019, Kuntz had nevertheless still given the starting signal for the new European Championship qualifying campaign in the last international match window – although even there he had dribbled out a clear job knowledge.
