Nagelsmann explains why he rejected Madrid

Julian Nagelsmann has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated in Germany and has left an interview full of headlines and revelations. Among them, that he was one of the candidates to be coach of Real Madrid after Zinedine Zidane resigned from his position in the summer of 2018. Finally, the club opted for Lopetegui, but, first of all, the now Bayern Munich coach decided to reject the offer. However, his words hides the possibility of visiting the capital in the future. It does not say, but that “is the highest possible step” is revealing.

This is how the 34-year-old German coach explains his ‘no’ to Real Madrid: “There is a big difference. If you take over the first team like I did at Hoffenheim, where I was already a junior manager and knew all the cleaners and outfielders, the adaptation time is extremely short. Because you know exactly who to talk to when you need cones (for training). If you want your vegetable soup in the afternoon, you go to the cook you already know … “.

Nagelsmann continues, more directly: “When you first have to meet all the people in a club, it is another dimension. So yes it was okay for me to seek a notch higher than the Hoffenheim, but not the highest step that would have been possible“The question was about Real Madrid and, of course, that upper echelon to which he refers is precisely the Real Madrid entity.

His future as a coach

Although an obvious interest in training Real Madrid someday is understood in his statements, it seems that, if the time comes, it will be in the distant future. At the moment, he has a contract with Bayern Munich and is clear in his relationship with the German team: “Where do I see myself in five years? I still have hope that it will be at Bayern“.

Nagelsmann started very early in this of the benches. He still holds the record for precociousness in the German championship, taking command of Hoffenheim at just 28 years old. Perhaps that is why he is aware that his coaching career will not be as long as that of many others in the union: “I do not want to be until 70 years old, but in five I still intend to train …“.

Despite everything, he does not forget his origins. When he took the Hoffenheim bench, the team was not in a very comfortable situation. He managed to seal, not without suffering, the permanence in the last day. Do youWhat would have happened if it had been downgraded? He himself talks about the subject: “If he had dropped, surely he would still be a coach of U-19 players today, not a Bundesliga coach. “