1. The Coach

Berti Vogts was already under pressure during the World Cup preparations – living in the shadow of his predecessor, Franz Beckenbauer. If he was the “iconic figure,” Vogts was the honest worker who clung to traditional ideals. But in the 1990s, those ideals were outdated – instead of community and cohesion, the “me-first” mentality had entered professional football. Because Vogts refused to cooperate with the BILD newspaper, it painted him as a loser and a failure – an image that also took hold in the public eye. Vogts therefore retreated into pragmatic optimism, promising the title.