Kicker awards: Jupp Heynckes has been voted as coach of the year

Kicker announced the results of the election conducted among German sports journalists (VDS) to determine the best German players (male and female) and the coach of 2017-'18.

Jupp Heynckes was voted as the coach of the year with 91 votes, two ahead of Schalke 04's Domenico Tedesco. Bayern Munich's treble winning coach told Kicker that he is very happy that he has been voted as the coach of the year:

I’m very happy that I’ve been voted coach of the year by the journalist experts.

Heynckes also said that he wishes to pay a big compliment to the people who voted for other coaches because he thinks that there are too many good, young coaches in the Bundesliga who also would have deserved the honor:

I also wish to pay a big compliment, however, to those who did not vote for me, because there are many good, young coaches in the Bundesliga who also would have deserved this honor -- and of course also Christian Streich in Freiburg.

Bayern president Uli Hoeneß reacted that it is nice that an older coach won this vote when a kind of 'youth-madness' prevails:

It’s especially nice that in times in which a kind of youth-madness prevails, an older coach won this vote.

Heynckes, known as Mr.Bundesliga among fans, had a great season -- even though Bayern wasn't able to win either the UCL or the DFB Cup -- after coming off of retirement at the age of 72. Even though his signing generated the hopes of a treble, the team failed to showcase a better performance in the UCL. None of it has anything to do with Heynckes because he got it all right every single time but issues like injuries kept the team away from winning. That's why it is right to say that Heynckes really deserved the award, even if for a small margin.

Schalke's 32-year old coach Domenico Tedesco and former Eintracht Frankfurt manager Niko Kovač secured second and third positions respectively. Tedesco had a wonderful season with Die Königsblauen and helped them finish second in the League by securing a Champions League spot. Kovač -- who got 77 votes -- saw his team lift the DFB Cup by defeating his Bayern by a margin of 1-3. Kovač may have more to offer this season as he has taken up a bigger challenge of not letting Bayern go through what they had went through for the past five years.

As for the Player of the Year awards, Real Madrid's Toni Kroos and Olympique Lyon's Dzsenifer Marozsan were voted as the best male and female players respectively.