Why did Max never get a shot on the national team? There was a time, before Klose emerged, when they were depending on stiffs like Jancker. Martin Max couldn't have been any worse. I always wondered why he never got a decent look.
I'm not sure why he never made it. He was given 1 solitary cap. We basically went from Bierhoff and Preuss to Klose and Jancker during the 2002 WCQ campaign. Its hard to believe Max would be worse than Jancker. The only problem he had was that Jancker played at FCB and Max was at 1860. If I had my choice our WC2002 starting strikers would have been Kirsten and Klose.
Who the f... is Preuss? Do you maybe mean Preetz? But Preetz did not start at 2002 WCQ. Although there was many fluctuation in the attack: Neuville, Bode, Zickler, ... A reason why Völler didn´t consider Max could be, that Max scored half of his goals in season 01/02 in the months March-May when the WCQ was already over.
Maybe Kirsten has already ended his NT career (i don´t remember), in 2002 he became 37 and in 2003 he ended his career.
Kirsten had retired from the national team after the 2000 EC. And Preetz hardly ever played for the NT - certainly never in a big tournament. As for Max: Völler probably didn't like him. That's my guess, at least. He wasn't really the German Pele either... and Jancker is underrated. He had a very bad 2002 season, but until 2001 he wasn't all that bad (and a much better player than many give him credit for in retrospect).
Max got snubbed! There was a big of a row that went back to when Max was at Schalke with Mulder and there was bad blood with Neverkusen. Max was playing with 1860 (and a piss poor 1860 at that) and was torjaeger in '02 (28 games/ 18 goals) and also in 2000 (32 games, 19 goals) but they left him at home for both EM and WMs those years!!! If that's not a snub I don't know what is. I remember having this discussion back then about Max and why he was left home. He had scored more goals than all of the other German strikers and was hot. I cannot recall the last time a hot German striker was left home. In 2002 Neuville had 13 goals, Jankme had *0*, Bierhof was between Milan and Monaco and only had 5, and Klose had 16. Max was torjaeger and many, many people were saying Voeller was an idiot for not taking him. Looking at the final they were vindicated in their attack on him.
I don't think Max would have made any difference. The guy was good in scoring goals against relegation candidates, but Brazil would have been way out of his league as well. During the two seasons in which he was best scorer he almost exclusively scored against teams from the lower half of the table: In 2000: 4 goals against teams from the top-7 (as 1860 was in the top-6 themselves), 14 goals against teams from the bottom-6 (19 goals total) In 2002: 1 goal against teams from the top-6, 10 goals against teams from the bottom-6 (18 goals total). I have nothing against Max at all, but he also hardly had any assists at all (1 resp. 2 during the two seasons here), so I don't think he would have killed Brazil the same way as he did St. Pauli or Hansa Rostock. Disclaimer: just counted the goals by a quick glance through his records, but I hope everything should be correct.
As for the other strikes: I guess we can agree that taking Klose was the right decision. Neuville may never have scored as many goals as Max, but he was in another league when it came to assits and all. Leaves Jancker and Bierhoff, both who really hadn't the best seasons of their career in 2002. Still, Jancker had one of the best years of his career in 2001, and Bierhoff wasn't that far removed from his glory days either. I can somewhat understand taking NT veterans over an internationally unproven striker who was somewhat limited skillwise.
Don't get me wrong, you MUST take Klose and Neuville. They were insanely hot at the time too. By all means, those two are a must!!! Jancker was still in everyone's memory, but his performace after 2001 was like Jekyl and Hyde. Bierhoff was just the DFB's boy. Those two were taken for political reasons, nothing more. I remember JK saying at the time to leave Max home was a mistake he would not make if national team coach.
I'd probably taken all five. Way too many midfielders in the 2002 squad - not enough strikers (not that Germany had many good ones at the time). Ok, Asamoah and Bode could have played there as well in case of emergency, but still... it's not as if Ricken was needed that much anyway.
I think the biggest loss for Germany was the injuries to Scholl and Deisler. We could really have used their creativity in the final. Does anyone else remember that rediculous free-kick that Neuville took in the first half? He hit the post from nearly 40 meters out
Scholl's importance to Germany (and Bayern) continues to grow in retrospect even now. I think people are seeing more and more that guys like that do not come around all that often. Deisler is a sad case. To me he is like Sammer....what could have been? Just sad to see the potential lost. Back to Max, I really would have fancied Germany's chances more with him up front with Klose. That would have been fun to see.
Concerning Mehmet Scholl, I'm still angry at Berti Vogts not taking Scholl along to the 1998 World Cup. Scholl had played a splendid Bundesliga season for Bayern during 1998 and he had voiced that his main objective was to make the squad for the 1998 World Cup. Any other coach would have gladly taken Scholl along, but Vogts "resisted" adding a player as great and in excellent form because he had a personal grudge against Scholl for he allegedly had said something derogatory towards Matthias Sammer during 1996 Euro. Instead of Scholl, he nominated Steffen Freund...
But afairc the reason wasn´t a personal problem with Vogts, but Sammers injury proness, that prevented him from becoming a legend.
Hadn't Sammer already retired by the time of the 1998 WC? He played his last ever game as a pro in 1997, but I'm not sure if he was still planning on a come back by then (which never came anyway, as we know now).
Sammer was not part of the 1998 World Cup due to his career-ending injury (1997). It wasn't Sammer who was against Scholl going to France '98, but Vogts. Regardless of Sammer not being part of the 1998 squad, due to Scholl's alleged derogatory remarks towards Sammer during Euro 1996, Vogts still resented Scholl that much, that he would not take him along to France'98.
Max in his prime was certainly deserving of more caps. So I guess we can question why that didn't happen. Considering Bayern's many fingers in the DFB, I can't say with any certainty that he wasn't blacklisted.