BONN. Sept 8 (Reuters/ Internet): Berti Vogts said that he decided to resign as German national soccer coach to protect his dignity.
After a long conversation with his wife. Monika. Vogts Sicked up his telephone on londay and asked German Soccer Federation (DFB) president Egidius Braun to release him from his contract.
"To accept a separation was a very painful decision." said Braun, who had always supported Vogts since he took over after the 1990 World Cup triumph in Italy. "Berti has done a tremendous job." he added.
"The current situation is particularly difficult because much of the criticism is aimed at me personally." Vogts said after informing Braun of his decision to resign. "It is my responsibility to make sure that I protect what remains of my human dignity."
Unlike his predecessor, the outspoken and extrovert Franz Beckenbauer, the discreet, almost shy Vogts often took criticism and defeats personally.
The 51-year-old must have felt hurt when he read Monday's newspapers, which blasted him after lacklustre performances by his men in two friendlies in Malta last week.
"Berti, how much longer?” read the front page headline of the mass-circulation Bild while popular tabloid Express was even more explicit, writing: "Berti, please go!"
On Monday evening. Vogts, whose attitude sometimes appear to border on paranoia, called the police to aslt them to protect him and his family
from the crowd of journalists surrounding his house in Ko-rschenbroich. near Moenchengladbach.
With Vogts at the helm. Germany played 102 internationals. losing only 12, but the last of them. 3-0 to Croatia in the World Cup quarter-finals, signalled the end.
The former Borussia Moenchengladbach defender, who played 96 times for the national team, winning the World Cup in 1974. was nicknamed "the terrier” during his playing days for his tenacity.
Living up to his reputation as a fighter, he decided to stay on after the Croatia defeat, casting aside his old guard and vowing to build a new team. But his reconstruction programme remained at ground level after the Germans could manage only a 2-1 win over lightweights Malta followed by a tame 1 -1 draw with Romania on Saturday.
Even Braun acknowledged that he was disappointed by what he saw in Malta: "We did not witness the progress we
were hoping for arid those matches did not mark a new start," he said.
Vogts, who was expected to remain in charge until at least Euro 2000. became only the second German coach not to reach the end of his contract after Jupp Derwall, who stepped down following Germany's poor showing at the 1984 European championship in France.
"Berti Vogts no longer saw a possibility, given the enormous pressure surrounding the national team, to find the strength and concentration he needed to prepare the team for the 2000 European championship." said DFB spokesman Wolfgang Niersbach.
Long in the shadow of Beckenbauer, first as his team mate in the formidable German side of the 1970s. then as his coaching assistant. Vogts tasted his own moment of glory in 1996, when Germany won the Euro-Kean championship title at 'embley.
It was then, probably, that he should have started to build a new team, promoting young players instead of remaining faithful to gifted but ageing veterans such as Juergen Klinsmann. Andreas Moeller and Juergen Kohler. But their replacements were not obvious and by this year's World Cup he looked to the past by recalling Lothar Matthaeus.
Even before standing down. Vogts pleaded for respect, saying he was tired of Incessant criticism.
"When I read the papers. I get the impression that I've lived through some 100 internationals. winning only 12." he said last month. "Reality is that we’ve lost only 12."