Rudi Völler was personally honored with the DFL honorary award at the German Football League's New Year's reception in Offenbach.
This represents "a recognition of special and outstanding achievements in all aspects of German professional football," is how the DFL describes the award. Völler had to cancel the original appointment in mid-August 2022 for personal reasons. A total of 15 people are DFL honorary award winners. Born in Hanau, Völler began his active career at Kickers Offenbach.
"Of course I'm happy about the award, I grew up less than ten minutes from here," said Völler. He feels "a bit like a child of the Bundesliga".
Völler remains top candidate for Bierhoff successor
The 62-year-old is considered a top candidate to succeed DFB director Oliver Bierhoff. In the considerations of the task force founded after the World Cup, to which Völler himself belongs, he could take on the role of a team manager in the DFB on the way to the home European Championship in 2024, representing the national team in particular in public. Völler was last managing director at Bayer Leverkusen, but retired from big football last summer.
According to "Kicker" information, the 1990 world champion and 90-time national player asked for time to think about it. According to media reports, the next meeting of the task force is scheduled for this Thursday, and the DFB executive committee will meet next week. The task force is headed by DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and his deputy Hans-Joachim Watzke, as well as Bayern Munich's former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, his successor Oliver Kahn, ex-DFB sports director Matthias Sammer and former RB Leipzig managing director Oliver Mintzlaff are represented in it.
Völler could now help the association for the second time in a difficult situation: After the botched EM 2000, he initially stepped in as team boss and placeholder for Christoph Daum. At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Völler surprisingly led the national team to the final. After the preliminary round at the EM 2004, the world champion from 1990 then resigned.
