United States national team fans might be cheering the inclusion of Jurgen Klinsmann among FIFA’s list of the best head coaches of 2014, but not everyone in CONCACAF is celebrating.
Mexican national team head coach Miguel Herrera told the ESPN radio show Jorge Ramos y su Banda on Wednesday (around the 17-minute mark) that he didn’t understand why Klinsmann was on the 10-man short list for FIFA’s Manager of the Year.
“I don't know why Jurgen Klinsman is on the list [of the best 10 managers of the year],” Herrera said. “Maybe because he's German.”
"That's the only explanation we have, because he hasn't done anything to be there,” Herrera added. “I'd say [Jorge Luis] Pinto did more with Costa Rica."
Klinsmann and Herrera have coached against each other just once to date, an April friendly in Arizona that ended 2-2. Herrera took the reins of a troubled El Tri team ahead of their two-leg inter-confederation World Cup playoff against New Zealand last November. They won that series and went on to post an unbeaten record in the group stage in Brazil before eventually losing to the Netherlands in the Round of 16.
Klinsmann was named to a 10-man shortlist for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football on Monday after a year in which he helped lead the Americans advance from the widely-considered Group of Death in Brazil before falling to Belgium in extra time of their Round of 16 game.
Klinsmann is joined on the shortlist by the likes of Joachim Low, who guided Germany to the 2014 World Cup crown, Pep Guardiola of Bayern Munich, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, and Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone. Three finalists will be announced on Dec. 1 and the final prize will be given out on Jan. 15 in Zurich.
The final decisions will be made by the captains and head coaches of the of the men's national teams throughout the world, as well as international media.
