Jürgen Klopp Unveiled as DFB National Team Coach

The corridors at the DFB are rarely quiet, but today they are humming. Jürgen Klopp is set to be unveiled as the new national team coach – a headline that would usually dominate the stage on its own. Yet behind the flashbulbs and the microphones, another major decision is being pushed over the line.

Per Mertesacker is coming back into the heart of German football.

According to consistent reports from Sky and RTL, the 2014 World Cup winner will join the DFB as managing director for sport, succeeding Andreas Rettig. The deal is expected to be signed today, turning a long-discussed structural change into a concrete shift in power.

The timing is striking. On the same day the DFB hands the national team to Klopp, it also locks in the man who will help shape the sporting strategy around him. Not on the touchline, but in the offices where long-term decisions are made.

Mertesacker’s start date is already mapped out. He is expected to officially begin his role in January 2027, with a contract that runs through the 2030 World Cup. That is not a stopgap appointment; it is a clear bet on continuity through an entire tournament cycle.

The announcement of his appointment is also expected today, woven into a day that already feels like a reset for the DFB. Yet Mertesacker himself will not be in Frankfurt for the occasion. No joint photo, no handshake on stage. His arrival will be confirmed from a distance, the symbolism left to the dates on the contract rather than the choreography of a press conference.

Klopp on the bench, Mertesacker in the sporting hierarchy, a World Cup on the horizon in 2030. The DFB is not just changing faces. It is quietly redrawing its future.