BERLIN (AP) — Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has extended his contract by two years, taking him beyond the upcoming European Championship and through the 2026 World Cup.
It also rules out Nagelsmann returning to Bayern Munich, which is looking for a new coach for next season after deciding to part ways with Thomas Tuchel at the end of this season.
Nagelsmann was the reported favorite following Xabi Alonso’s decision to stay with Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern has to look elsewhere after two high-profile rejections.
Bayern honorary president Uli Hoeness confirmed Nagelsmann had been a candidate for Bayern — “one of several” — in comments to local broadcaster BR24. Hoeness added he respected Nagelsmann's decision. “It’s a shame but it doesn’t mean the end of the world for FC Bayern,” he said.
The German soccer federation announced on Friday that its supervisory board and shareholders decided unanimously to keep Nagelsmann in charge of the national team after Euro 2024, which Germany is hosting.
“He's on the wish list of many big clubs across Europe,” federation president Bernd Neuendorf said of Nagelsmann.
The 36-year-old Nagelsmann has overseen a change in mood in Germany after wins over France and the Netherlands following a shakeup of the team last month. He was hired in September on what was initially a short-term deal through to Euro 2024 to fix a run of poor games under predecessor Hansi Flick.
Nagelsmann said staying with Germany was “a decision of the heart. It’s a great honor to be able to train the national team and work with the best players in the country.”
Bayern fired Nagelsmann in favor of Tuchel in March 2023. Bayern went on to win the Bundesliga that season, but only on goal difference after an uneasy start to Tuchel's tenure. This season, Bayern failed to win the title for the first time since 2012 after Bayer Leverkusen won its first title last Sunday.
Tuchel's team is still in contention in the last four of the Champions League after beating Arsenal in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Speaking on Friday ahead of playing Union Berlin on Saturday, Tuchel dismissed any speculation that his team's success in the Champions League could lead to him staying past the end of the season. “I have an agreement with the club. It’s been communicated and still stands," he said.
The two key management figures involved in Bayern's decision to fire Nagelsmann a year ago, Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic, both left the club shortly after. Bayern's new sporting director Max Eberl said on Wednesday that the search for a new coach was entering “the final phase” in comments reported by the dpa news agency. He didn't name any candidates.
Nagelsmann's Germany is on the up after losses last year to Turkey and Austria put the coach under some pressure. Nagelsmann has three wins, one draw and two losses from six games, all of them friendlies.
Germany knows extending a coach's contract ahead of a tournament can backfire.
When Germany gave Joachim Löw a new four-year deal a month before the 2018 World Cup, it was a vote of confidence in the coach who led the team to the World Cup title four years earlier.
Germany went on to exit the 2018 tournament in the group stage and Löw eventually left in 2021 following a loss to England in the round of 16 at the European Championship.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann during the international friendly soccer match between Austria and Germany at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has extended his contract beyond this summer’s European Championship by two years through the 2026 World Cup. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
Communities in the U.S. West and Canada were under siege from raging wildfires on Friday, as a fast-moving blaze sparked by lightning sent people fleeing on fire-ringed roads in rural Idaho and a human-caused inferno forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes in northern California.
In eastern Oregon, a pilot was found dead in a small air tanker plane that crashed while fighting one of the many wildfires spreading across several Western states.
More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the U.S. on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.
Late Friday, a new wildfire blew up in Eastern Washington that threatened homes, the railroad, Interstate 90 and the community of Tyler, which was evacuated. The Columbia Basin fire in Spokane County closed part of Highway 904 between the interstate and Cheney, Washington. Multiple planes, helicopters and fire personnel were working hard to contain the fire, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Others were human-caused, like the Park Fire burning in Butte County, California, just northwest of the community of Paradise where the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and incinerated thousands of homes.
Carli Parker is one of hundreds who fled their homes this week as the Park Fire pushed close. Parker decided to leave with her Forest Ranch residence with her family when the fire began burning across the street. She has previously been forced out of two homes by fire, and she said she had little hope that her residence would remain unscathed.
“I think I felt like I was in danger because the police had come to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their vehicle after telling us that we need to self-evacuate and they wouldn’t come back,” said Parker, a mother of five.
More than 130 structures have been destroyed by the fire, and thousands more remain threatened. The state's largest active wildfire began Wednesday when a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then calmly blended in with others fleeing the scene, authorities said.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday and held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said. There was no reply to an email to the district attorney asking whether the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.
By midday Friday, the fire had burned more than 278 square miles (720 square kilometers) across the Sierra Nevada foothills above the city of 100,000. It remained completely uncontained.
Fire crews were making progress on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, said Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. About 1,000 people had been displaced Thursday by the lightning-sparked Gold Complex fires, but some evacuations were lifted Friday when the 5-square-mile (12-square-kilometer) fire was about 11% contained. Fire managers pulled about 200 of the firefighters off the line at the Gold Complex so they could aid efforts on the Park Fire near Chico.
Forest Ranch evacuee Sherry Alpers, fled with her 12 small dogs and made the decision to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning that animals would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after learning the dogs would be kept in cages, since her dogs have always roamed free at her home.
Alpers said she doesn’t know whether the fire spared her home or not, but she said that as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn't care about the material things.
“I’m kind of worried, but not that much," she said. “If it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Brian Bowles was also staying in his car outside the shelter with his dog Diamon. He said he doesn't know if his mobile home is still standing.
Bowles said he only has a $100 gift card he received from United Way, which handed them out to evacuees.
“Now the question is, do I get a motel room and comfortable for one night? Or do I put gas in the car and sleep in here?" he said. “Tough choice.”
In Oregon, a Grant County Search and Rescue team on Friday morning located a small single-engine air tanker that had disappeared while fighting the 219-square-mile (567 square kilometers) Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. The pilot died, said Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark. No one else was aboard the bureau-contracted aircraft when it went down in steep, forested terrain.
The most damage so far has been to the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.
In Idaho, lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires and the evacuation of multiple communities, including one where a man drove past a building and trees engulfed in flames as a tunnel of smoke rose over the roadway.
Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of roaring fires, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which breeds salmon. The fires were burning on about 31 square miles (80.3 square kilometers) Friday afternoon.
There’s no estimate yet on the number of buildings burned in Idaho, nor is there information about damage to urban communities, Johnson said Friday morning.
Oregon still has the biggest active blaze in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire to burn nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers). It remains unpredictable and was only 20% contained Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.
The National Interagency Fire Center said more than 27,000 fires have burned more than 5,800 square miles (15,000 square kilometers) in the U.S. this year, and in Canada, more than 8,000 square miles (22,800 square kilometers) have burned in more than 3,700 fires so far, according to its National Wildland Fire Situation Report issued Wednesday.
Associated Press writers Holly Ramer, Sarah Brumfield, Claire Rush, Terry Chea, Scott Sonner, Martha Bellisle and Amy Hanson contributed to this report.
This photo provided by the Butte County District Attorney shows Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, Calif. Stout was arrested early Thursday, July 25, 2024, by Cal Fire arson investigators, assisted by District Attorney investigators, on suspicion of starting the Park Fire. (Butte County District Attorney via AP)
Trees and vegetation go up in flames at the River Fire Thursday, July 25, 2024, nearby Myrtle, Idaho. Lightning strikes have sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of multiple communities. (August Frank/Lewiston Tribune via AP)
A home owner keeps his roof wet to keep embers from taking hold as Cal Fire Riverside County firefighters battle the Macy Fire in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Terry Pierson/The Orange County Register via AP)
People evacuate their horse as the the River Fire moves through wheat fields Thursday, July 25, 2024, as seen from near Culdesac, Idaho. Lightning strikes have sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of multiple communities. (August Frank/Lewiston Tribune via AP)
A vehicle drives past the spreading River Fire Thursday, July 25, 2024, near Myrtle, Idaho, before U.S. Highway 12 was closed. Lightning strikes have sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of multiple communities. (August Frank/Lewiston Tribune via AP)
A dog being safeguarded by fire support personnel sits beside Cohasset Rd. as the Park Fire burns in the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Cal Fire firefighter Christian Moorhouse, center, monitors the flames while defends a mobile home during the Park Fire in the community of Cohasset near Chico, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Seen from Chico, Calif., an air tanker passes a plume from the Park Fire burning in Butte County on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Animals evacuate as the Park Fire burns through the Cohasset community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Firefighter Christian Moorhouse battles the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. His crew was able to keep flames from reaching the mobile home they were protecting. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The Park Fire burns along Highway 32 in the Forest Ranch community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Firefighter Christian Moorhouse battles the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. His crew was able to keep flames from reaching the mobile home they were protecting. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Firefighter Christian Moorhouse jumps over a fence while battling the Park Fire in the Cohasset community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. His crew was able to keep flames from reaching the mobile home they were protecting. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Seen in a long exposure photograph, the Park Fire burns along Highway 32 in the Forest Ranch community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The Park Fire burns along Highway 32 in the Forest Ranch community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Firefighters spray water while battling the Park Fire in the Cohasset community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. The crew was able to keep flames from reaching the mobile home they were protecting. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Seen in a long exposure photograph, the Park Fire burns along Highway 32 in the Forest Ranch community of Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
