Kahn says no to Schalke role

MUNICH // The former Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn has confirmed he will not be taking the vacant position of general manager at Schalke. Kahn's name had emerged as one of the early front-runners for the job after Andreas Muller was dismissed on Monday, but the 39-year-old said it is not the right time for him to return to the game. Kahn retired in the summer and has taken a step back from the public eye, although he is still very busy with his own business ventures which, he claims, preclude him from taking on such a high-profile position right now. "I am not even considering it," he told Munich's Tz newspaper. "I have so many things to do and will soon be spending a long time in Asia. "I would like to concentrate on that, so that answers everything." Kahn would not have been the ideal candidate anyway, according to the Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer. "I would advise him against it," he said. "He is still in a transitional period and I don't think he would be ready." Udo Lattek, the former Bayern coach, added that Schalke would not be the best club for anybody taking their first steps in club management. "Maybe later Kahn will be a first class manager, but he has no experience and certainly not (enough) to go straight to Schalke where hell has broken loose," he said. "You cannot take somebody like him. "They need a really strong character who can really clean things up. One who the players have respect for and will not bow in front of the board. "I think the right manager for Schalke has yet to be created." *PA Sport