Chennai: Nationalistic feelings run high in participating countries during the Fifa World Cup. Even people who are usually hesitant to wave their country’s flag tend to feel a surge of nationalism because no other event captures the attention of the world like the festival of football. But it appears that football federations haven’t been swayed by patriotism while appointing coaches for the World Cup in Brazil as 14 out of 32 jobs have been outsourced.
Three Germans — Volker Finke (Cameroon), Ottmar Hitzfeld (Switzerland) and Juergen Klinsmann (USA) — and an equal number of Colombians Jorge Luis Pinto (Costa Rica), Reinaldo Rueda (Ecuador) and Luis Suarez (Honduras) have secured World Cup assignments outside their country of birth. Ironically, an Argentine, Jose Pekerman, is at the helm of Colombia. Argentina, which has also supplied the coach of Chile (Jorge Sampaoli), is second on the list along with Portugal and Italy.
No foreign coach has won the World Cup in its 19 editions. That explains the faith Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Spain — all strong contenders for the title in 2014 — have reposed in sons of the soil. Dark horses such as England, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Uruguay have also not gone for foreign firepower. The pattern suggests that teams without a realistic chance of winning the Cup believe in expertise from abroad to lead them to a respectable performance.
When Germany take on USA in a Group H match at Recife on June 26, expect a warm handshake between the two coaches. On the field of play, US boss Klinsmann will try to turn the tables on his compatriot and former assistant Joachim Loew. Klinsmann was criticised for living in California when he was at the helm of Germany at the 2006 World Cup. Now he has a chance to manage the affairs of his adopted country where football is soccer.
Other countries that will have overseas coaches at the World Cup are Algeria: Vahid Halilhodzic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ivory Coast: Sabri Lamouchi (France), Japan: Alberto Zaccheroni (Italy), Russia: Fabio Capello (Italy), Greece: Fernando Santos (Portugal) and Iran: Carlos Queiroz (Portugal).
