Germany wanted Hodgson

Roy Hodgson has admitted that Germany wanted him to be their national coach.

The England boss was at Blackburn Rovers at the time, in September 1998, when German FA president Egidius Braun made an approach to Hodgson to replace Berti Vogts.

“When I was at Blackburn, the German national team contacted me with a view of my becoming their manager,” he said. “But Franz Beckenbauer, who had a huge influence in the German game, to his great credit, put a block on me, saying it would be a terrible admission of incompetence if it weren’t possible to find a coach who was German.”