During his playing career, Jürgen Klinsmann had a reputation for diving. What, then, will American TV-viewers think about his native Germany this summer during the World Cup?
ESPN announced on Thursday that the German legend has joined the network as a studio analyst for the upcoming 2010 World Cup. In a conference call with the media, he stated his belief that a nation’s footballing style embodies its character.
"I think what I bring to the table by analyzing games for ESPN and by talking about the different backgrounds in certain nations, is to make people understand what goes on the field actually reflects the nation," Klinsmann said.
The former striker enjoyed a long club career that took him to eight clubs in five countries, including Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. He scored 238 goals in 542 club appearances, and notched 47 international goals. He also won the 1990 World Cup with West Germany and coached the German team to a 3rd place finish in 2006. He most recently managed Bayern.
The well-traveled German was reportedly in contention for the U.S. head coaching position before current coach Bob Bradley was hired. Considering his philosophy tying a nation's culture to the way it plays soccer, where does that leave the United States, where Klinsmann has lived since 1998?
"U.S. soccer so far hasn't found yet their real identity [regarding] how U.S. soccer should be played," Klinsmann said. "I'm talking about a philosophy, a style of play, that kind of marks every nation. If you talk about Brazilian soccer, you know what you're talking about; about Argentine—the passing game. …Everybody represents a specific style of play. I think in this country here, you're not there yet.
"What style should represent United States soccer? I think that is a key component to what all is going on in South Africa."
Klinsmann joins analysts Efan Ekoku, Ruud Gullit, John Harkes and Alexi Lalas, among others, for ESPN’s and ABC’s tournament coverage, which is set to include all 64 matches for a total of 240 hours of soccer. It's a lineup of pundits that likely boasts more World Cup experience than any other network, anywhere.
ESPN has also hired a handful of accent-rich play-by-play announcers, including British commentator Martin Tyler—something that has not gone unnoticed by American soccer fans.
"[The announcers] do have a common accent—that being generally a British accent," ESPN executive producer Jed Drake said when asked about the issue. "It was not by design that we started out saying we need to have all four of our play-by-play having British accents. It truly started out as a process of identifying the best announcers that we could find. We have four of the very best soccer announcers anywhere, and the fact that they all have an accent that would not be an American accent, was somewhat of a coincidence."
