Germany, knocked out at the group stage of Euro 2004, toasted Greek success under Otto Rehhagel on Monday but hoped that the German coach would soon return to rescue his own ailing national side.

"King of Europe," proclaimed top-selling Bild above a picture of the 65-year-old on which the newspaper had added a crown. "But now please come home."

An emergency meeting of the German Football Association on Monday agreed to set up a four-member committee including Franz Beckenbauer, a World Cup winner as player and coach, to select the new coach but gave no names of likely candidates.

German hopes for the 2006 World Cup, which it is hosting, were rocked last week when Ottmar Hitzfeld decided not to replace Rudi Voeller who resigned as German coach after the 2-1 loss to a largely

reserve Czech side.

Hitzfeld, sacked as coach of Bayern Munich in May, was seen as a natural successor after his Champions League triumphs with Bayern in 2000 and Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

The heir apparent, however, who had expressed interest in the job in recent months, said he needed a break and was not in the right state of mind.

Since then a series of high-profile coaches, including Christoph Daum at Turkish side Fenerbahce, have said they would not be prepared to accept the challenge.

Rehhagel has emerged as a potential saviour after he crafted a Greek side lacking any obvious stars into European champions. Among them was Angelos Haristeas, a fringe player at German side Werder Bremen who scored Greece's winner on Sunday.

Rehhagel's reluctance to talk about the vacant position has prompted widespread speculation that he could be ready to coach the Germans.

Indeed, the only other clear German candidate not to have ruled

himself out is Lothar Matthaeus, who played a record 150 times for Germany and is now trainer of Hungary.

Matthaeus has said he would be up to the job, but he has little coaching experience.

The German FA, though, would have a Herculean struggle wrestling Rehhagel from Greece.

The Greek FA chief told Bild in no uncertain terms that Rehhagel would stay.

"Otto will stay Greek trainer until 2006. End of discussion," said Vassilis Gagatsis.

Germany might then be forced to follow the Greek example by employing their first foreign coach.

Speculation so far has included PSV Eindhoven boss Guus Hiddink, who reached the World Cup semifinals with the Netherlands in 1998 and South Korea in 2002, and Danish coach Morten Olsen.

The German FA's difficulties are compounded by calls for its chief, Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, to resign. Critics accuse him of being too hands on and interfering in team selection.