The "Tiger" steps down - Hermann Gerland retires from professional football | OneFootball

Hermann Gerland has officially left his role as assistant coach of Germany's U21 and retires from coaching. The “Tiger”, as he was playfully called by many players he has coached in his career, decided on his own, that now is the right time for him to step down.

The 71-year-old has paved the way and prepared many top football players in Germany for their career; mostly active in youth departments, Gerland always proved to have a good eye for talent early on in players' careers.

His stations as a coach include Bochum (where he was born), Nürnberg, TeBe Berlin, Ulm, Bielefeld and several youth teams from Bayern Munich and Germany.

Gerland spent the most time in his career as the coach of Bayern Munich's 2nd team, where he was the coach for a combined 13 years. Since his advice was always well received in Munich, he was also promoted to the assistant coach role under Pep Guardiola, Jupp Heynckes, Louis van Gaal and Carlo Ancelotti.

One of Gerland's best advices and scouting tips in his career was to push a young Thomas Müller into Bayern's first team - what Müller was able to achieve with the Bavarian club, should be known by now.

In the summer of 2021, Gerland left Bayern Munich and started to work the DFB - firstly as a scout, then as the assistant coach of Germany's U21 team (and even the senior team between November and December 2022).

“Hermann Gerland is a legend in German football and we are very proud that we have been able to draw on his expertise and personality at the DFB over the past four years,” said DFB Managing Director Andreas Rettig in a statement from the association.

“Hermann has given the young players at U21 level an enormous amount of his experience during this time, both on the pitch and off it with his straightforwardness and honesty. With his enormous experience and his assessments, he was an important part of Antonio Di Salvo's coaching team", the statement continued.

"The title at the last European Championship would have been a great achievement for the whole team, but also for him in particular. After more than 50 years in professional football as a player and coach, Hermann has decided to retire. We have great respect for this and wish him all the best for the future.”