Benjamin Hübner appointed assistant coach of German national team
The DFB have today announced the appointment of Benjamin Hübner as the new assistant coach of the German national team. The 35-year-old has signed a three-year contract and will work under Julian Nagelsmann, and alongside Benjamin Glück and Mads Buttgereit from July 1.
Hübner's appointment comes after Sandro Wagner confirmed that he will leave his role as assistant coach under Nagelsmann to pursue a head coaching role following the finals of the UEFA Nations League at the start of June.
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In a press release, Hübner was quoted as saying: 'Being able to work for the national team is a huge honour. I'm really looking forward to my new role as part of this coaching team. The most successful period of my career at Hoffenheim came under Julian Nagelsmann, it helped shape me as a player but also as an assistant coach later on in my career. I'm therefore really excited for our first games in September and naturally the World Cup next year, where we will give our absolute best.'
Nagelsmann added: 'I know Benni really well from our three years together in Hoffenheim. He was always a true team player, who was desperate to help the team be successful and he always put personal interests aside. Even as a player, he thought strategically and was a leader both on and off the pitch. It's precisely these qualities, along with his experience as a player, that make him an excellent addition to our coaching staff. That's why I'm really looking forward to working with Benni again now with the national team.'
GGFN | Daniel Pinder
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ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Twenty years ago this weekend, a 19-year-old Spanish tennis player named Rafael Nadal won the French Open for the first time, at the first attempt. By the time his career ended almost two decades later, Nadal had amassed 14 French Open titles, posting a Roland Garros record of 112 wins and four defeats. The tournament organisers built a statue of him before he had finished winning titles there. And at the start of this year's French Open, 15,000 people gathered on Court Philippe-Chatrier to celebrate one of the greatest achievements in sport. Advertisement But in June 2005, Nadal was a richly talented teenager, with the promise of a successful career but not yet an all-time stint that would help define men's tennis in the 2000s. This is the story of how, across two weeks, Nadal went from hopeful to champion, setting in motion his unprecedented dominance. Told by those who saw it first-hand: All via interviews, except for news conferences from Nadal and Gasquet, and a voice note from Carillo. Although Nadal had never competed at the French Open, having been injured the two previous editions, he was a pre-tournament favorite as a debutant. As would become familiar, he had cut a swathe through the clay-court season, winning titles in Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome in the build-up. During the Monte Carlo Masters, the previous year's Roland Garros runner-up and clay specialist Guillermo Coria said: 'Nadal is the best player on this surface in the world.' Roger Federer, the world No. 1, who had won four of the previous seven Grand Slams, was expected to lift the trophy, but Nadal, ranked No. 5, wasn't far behind. Rafael Nadal: It was the first tournament I approached with the feeling that something special could happen. It was the first Slam where I was one of the candidates. So I was nervous, 100 percent. 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Wearing three-quarter length shorts and a green singlet, Nadal powered his way to a 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-1 win on his first and last appearance on the old No. 1 Court. In his first point at Roland Garros, some of the future staples take over: the bullet inside-in forehand followed by the nerveless smash. Burgsmüller is now a radiologist treating cancer patients in Essen, Germany. Advertisement Lars Burgsmüller: I knew it wasn't a good draw. Already, people were saying he could be one of the best in the world. We'd played on a hard court before, but I remember at Roland Garros, his balls were so heavy. And I remember I had to really win a point, not only once, but two or three times. He's the best in defense and even when you think you've won the point, he is still passing you. My goal was to keep the balls short, but sometimes I was rushing too much. But then I knew if I stayed on the baseline and tried to grind and play long rallies, I'd have even less chance. So I tried to get to the net. Afterwards, I thought he could do well in the tournament, but I didn't think that he was going to win the whole thing. I still have the DVD of the match, but I've only watched a few minutes. Occasionally, my kids (three boys aged 15, 13 and nine) try to watch it on YouTube, and they are like, 'Look, it's daddy,' and then after five minutes they find something different to watch. They're like: 'Why are you making so many mistakes?' In the second round, Nadal eased past Belgium's Xavier Malisse, a 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist ranked No. 46, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. Nadal was feeling comfortable on the Paris clay — his main challenge was fighting a penchant for the city's chocolate croissants. His next match looked a lot tougher: Richard Gasquet. The pair had come through the junior ranks together and were seen as the joint 'next big things' in the sport. They'd just played an extremely close three-setter in Monte Carlo, won by Nadal, but Gasquet had beaten Federer earlier in that tournament and frequently got the better of Nadal when they were juniors. Nadal ended up thrashing Gasquet 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in a match that set the pair on hugely divergent paths. Gasquet ended up losing all 18 ATP matches against his one-time rival and while he had a successful career by most standards, he was never a serious contender to win a Grand Slam. During his Roland Garros farewell ceremony a couple of weeks ago, Nadal said of that Gasquet win: 'From that day, I truly understood what Roland Garros meant.' The match gave a glimpse into another Nadal truism: when it got hot in Paris, making his topspin forehand kick high off the clay, his opponents may as well have not turned up. Advertisement Toni Nadal: As soon as we saw the draw, the thing that stood out was that we have to play against Gasquet in the third round. We were a little afraid. 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I thought Rafa was a slight favorite based on what we'd seen already and the beast that you could tell he was going to be. Roger was very matter-of-fact about Rafa, and he talked about him as if he was describing some kind of natural phenomenon. He would call him 'it' and said things like: 'Quite impressive, isn't it? He's already bigger than me, and he's five years younger. Imagine how he looks in five years.' As well as Nadal was playing, Federer was also cruising — he hadn't lost a set and had thrashed Nadal's good friend Moya, a former Roland Garros champion, in the fourth round. He had come to Paris early to get extra practice time on Chatrier, having struggled with its huge dimensions in the past. The very first point of the match, the opening of arguably the best Grand Slam rivalry in men's tennis history, was a beauty. Federer tried to put away a forehand, but there was Nadal, on his 19th birthday, running it down and whipping a forehand passing shot down the line for a winner. They split the first two sets, but in the fading light, with Federer wanting the match to stop, Nadal toughed out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. Advertisement Clarey: It was a tighter match than people remember. Roger had his chances. The pattern that became the bugaboo for Roger was clear. There was that breakdown on the third or fourth backhand above the shoulder. Not the first, usually. A lot of extended points as well. I just think the matchup was a bad one for Roger. Worse on clay than anywhere. That match was a real indicator that Nadal had the gravitas and the ability to live up to the hype and block everything out. There were some players who were mentally strong but their games weren't as locked in but Rafa at 18 when he came here he was a fully formed mental competitor — he was a beast mentally already. Toni Nadal: Federer is more specialised in hard and grass courts, but had a wonderful serve, and many good shots. It was a very difficult match. Everyone knew how good Federer was. But after that, beating the world No. 1, we thought we could win the tournament. All that stood between Nadal and a first Grand Slam title was the unseeded Mariano Puerta. The Argentine, a left-hander and an accomplished clay-courter, posed Nadal different problems. He was back from a nine-month anti-doping ban issued in 2003, and he tested positive for etilefrine, a cardiac substance, shortly after his final against Nadal. On the day before the final, Nadal was given a very special hitting partner — three-time French Open champion Mats Wilander. Stylistically, Wilander made little sense as a rightie who didn't play with much topspin, but he and Nadal shared an agent in Carlos Costa, and the idea was that Nadal would be inspired by hitting with one of the greats of the game. Mats Wilander: My main memory of that was that I couldn't hit one forehand in the court because there was so much topspin. My backhand was OK, because I've got two hands, but it was really difficult to play against him — I'd never seen that much spin before in my life. Advertisement You can see it, but it's different when you actually play against it. There's a huge difference. And then, obviously, he got more and more spin and more and power the older he got. But in the beginning, it was mainly spin, and it was ridiculous. I was expecting him to win (Roland Garros), maybe not that year necessarily, but you could see straight away that this guy was. Perez-Barbadillo: There was tension the day before the final but also we were playing a football game on the PlayStation in his room. It turned out to be good preparation. Nadal picked up an early break in the first set, but Puerta's level lifted after he received treatment for a thigh injury. Puerta recovered to take the first set, playing a daring brand of tennis, full of darts to the net and big swings with his forehand. Nadal rallied to take the next two sets, but found himself down 5-4 in the fourth, with Puerta serving to take the match into a decider and up two set points at 40-15. When a diving Puerta netted a volley to lose the second, Nadal leapt child-like into the air, a rare reminder of how young he was. He saved a third set point with an absurd reflex volley, and Puerta knew the moment had gone. Two games later, Nadal was on his back in what would become his trademark celebration, winning 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-3, 7-5. Covered in clay, he clambered up to his box, and shared a warm embrace with his family, including his uncle Toni, who had guided him to this point. He even shook hands with King Juan Carlos of Spain, who was in attendance. 'People say he dreams with his feet on the ground,' said Mary Carillo in her commentary on NBC. 'He knows he belongs out here.' Toni Nadal: I was very, very happy because I knew that for the big players, for the people who want to be very good, they all want to win a slam. And Rafael was 19 and he had one, and this is what I said to him that day. At least we know that we have one Grand Slam. Advertisement It was a very close match. Puerta played really well and made it difficult. Rafael played a little better in the key moments. If Puerta had won the set points he had in the fourth set, maybe we cannot win the match from there. Mary Carillo: I forgot how good Puerta played but what what strikes me most watching it back was how fast Nadal was, and how incredible his defences were. He was so damn young, the scissor kicks he did when he won big points and the fact that he was so fast, he wasn't using what became a great shot in and of itself, his backhand, he was quick enough to run around and hit his big forehands. The three set points he saved when Puerta had a chance to take it into a fourth. Just, wow, it was fun stuff. The king, by the way, gave Nadal a standing ovation, along with a lot of other people, when he got it to 5-5 in the fourth. Carlos Moya: It was a roller-coaster of a match, so open and Puerta was playing amazing. We all thought Rafa could do it but until you win one, you don't know mentally if someone is going to be ready. And if they got to the fifth set, you never know what can happen, because Puerta physically was a beast. Clarey: A lot of the things that made 14 possible are there in that final. The point-to-point focus, the resistance to hype, the resistance to other people labeling him and creating his own scenario for himself. And the enjoyment and embrace of adversity. Toni Nadal: I thought he could win more Roland Garros titles because I am a logical man. When you win at 19, then I thought, 'OK, if we win with 19, we can win when we're 20,' and so on. Every year, I thought the next year he could win, but I never thought he could win 14 titles. After the match, I wrote Rafael a note that said, 'Puerta played better than you, but you won the match. If next year you play exactly the same, you cannot repeat the title, so we have to improve.' Clarey: I got invited to the celebrations that night at the Café de l'Homme, which has a trillion-dollar view of the Eiffel Tower terrace. That's where Rafa had his early victory parties, and the whole family was there. And I thought I would sort of go into a scene similar to what we saw in the Carlos Alcaraz documentary, you know, big celebrations kind of vibe. But it wasn't that at all. It was very sober and dignified. Rafa was wearing an open shirt, no tie, looking nothing at all like the beast that he had been a few hours before, who had jumped around and was covered in clay. It was a little bit like Clark Kent and Superman. Nadal sees that version of himself in simpler terms, and the final word belongs to the man himself. Rafael Nadal: What I remember is a guy with plenty of energy, with an amazing passion and motivation for what I was doing. (Top photos: Getty Images; Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic)
Associated Press
an hour ago
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