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Motivation Quote by Jurgen Klinsmann

"Once the World Cup preparations begin there will hardly be an opportunity to do so, since we'll have to put all our energy into the team. We coaches have a list of priorities and dealing with the media isn't in the top five"

About this Quote

Klinsmann is doing two things at once: setting boundaries and winning leverage. On the surface, it is a standard pre-tournament line about focus. Underneath, it is a preemptive strike against the modern sports-media machine that treats access as a right and quotes as currency. By saying media duties are not "in the top five", he turns an abstract complaint into a blunt ranking system coaches understand: time, recovery, tactics, scouting, cohesion. Talk is overhead.

The phrasing matters. "Once the World Cup preparations begin" frames the tournament as a closing door, a controlled environment where outside noise becomes a competitive disadvantage. He is also subtly shifting the moral center of the job: a coach is accountable first to the team, not to the narrative ecosystem that surrounds it. That is a cultural tension in global football, where federations, sponsors, and broadcasters monetize visibility while coaches try to protect concentration. Klinsmann, a player-turned-manager shaped by both German efficiency and American sports marketing, knows that attention can be both fuel and distraction.

There is also a savvy power play. Media access is one of the few levers journalists have; by deprioritizing it, he renegotiates the relationship on his terms. The subtext reads: if you want insight, understand the stakes. If you want spectacle, look elsewhere. In a World Cup cycle, that is less a refusal than a redefinition of what seriousness looks like.

Quote Details

TopicCoaching
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Klinsmann, Jurgen. (2026, January 16). Once the World Cup preparations begin there will hardly be an opportunity to do so, since we'll have to put all our energy into the team. We coaches have a list of priorities and dealing with the media isn't in the top five. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-the-world-cup-preparations-begin-there-will-84129/

Chicago Style
Klinsmann, Jurgen. "Once the World Cup preparations begin there will hardly be an opportunity to do so, since we'll have to put all our energy into the team. We coaches have a list of priorities and dealing with the media isn't in the top five." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-the-world-cup-preparations-begin-there-will-84129/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Once the World Cup preparations begin there will hardly be an opportunity to do so, since we'll have to put all our energy into the team. We coaches have a list of priorities and dealing with the media isn't in the top five." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-the-world-cup-preparations-begin-there-will-84129/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Jurgen Klinsmann (born July 30, 1964) is a Athlete from Germany.

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