BERLIN, July 3 (Reuters) - Germany's new coaching staff, pulled together at the last moment after a desperate search, need a new vision and foreign influence to help rejuvenate the national side, commentators said on Monday.

Just hours after Germany's soccer federation (DFB) surprised their new coach, Rudi Voeller, by naming the former striker and World Cup veteran to lead the team, there were widespread calls for a new style of play and fresh talent.

Voeller, who has no coaching experience and even lacks the trainer's licence required to run a team, will lead Germany for the next 10 months and hand over the reigns to Bayer Leverkusen coach Christoph Daum in June.

'The decision was a complete surprise for me,' said Voeller, who attended a crisis meeting in Cologne on Sunday in his capacity as sports director of Bayer Leverkusen.

His main task at the meeting was to stop the DFB taking Daum away from Leverkusen before his contract expires in June.

'Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought when the meeting started that I would end up being named the team boss four hours later,' said Voeller.

The blond striker scored 47 goals in 90 matches for Germany and was a key player in their 1990 World Cup-winning campaign.

Voeller's appointment was a desperate decision that was not reached until nearly three hours after the DFB had called a news conference on Sunday to name the new coach to replace Erich Ribbeck, who quit after the disastrous Euro 2000 campaign.

The logjam was broken when DFB vice president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder turned to Voeller an hour after the press conference was due to begin and said: 'Why don't you do it for one year until Daum is free?'

Voeller thought about it for half-an-hour, called his wife and then agreed.

Voeller, 40, will be assisted by Bayern Munich vice president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who will lead a 'task force' to advise Voeller and, later, Daum. Voeller will also need to pick an assistant in the next few days because he does not have the trainer's licence that is required to coach in Germany.

German commentators were urging the new coaching team not only to give the side a more modern and attractive style, but also a new look - less German and more international to reflect the multi-cultural society the country has become.

'We've reached a new low, but I'm convinced there will be a new spirit in the team,' said Guenter Netzer, the former German international midfielder who is now a popular television commentator. 'Germany has played antiquated football for too long. It's time for a change.'

Sven Goldmann of the Tagesspiegel daily said France had proved to the world that the most talented players can often be found among the country's immigrant community.

'Have the German teams in the past really represented the cultural diversity in our society?' Goldmann asked in the paper. 'The success of the team could hinge on whether it relies on only players with long German blood lines or on an all-star team of players who live in Germany and speak the language.'

More than half the players on the French side that won Euro 2000 - and the 1998 World Cup - are children of immigrants.

Germany has a huge immigrant population as well - nearly 10 percent of the country's 82 million people are considered 'foreigners' even though many Turks, Italians, and other nationalities have lived there for decades.

But it is extremely rare in Germany for such players to be included in the national team, mainly because it is difficult to become a German citizen.

'The German computer industry is looking to fill an acute shortage of specialists by bringing in Indian experts,' said Goldmann. 'For the soccer industry, the solution is even easier: their 'Indians' are already here.'

They are playing in the back streets of the inner cities, he said. 'They are the type that Germany woefully needs - the genuine street soccer players,' Goldmann added.

He noted that the Hertha Berlin team that won the German youth championship on Saturday had only three players with German passports. The winning goal was scored by Sofian Chahed, the son of Tunisian immigrants who grew up in Berlin.