The debacle at the soccer World Cup once again brings to light the problems in the youth team of the DFB. Those responsible discuss: Where are the centre-forwards? Where are the world-class defenders? The problem is multifaceted.
Anyone who hears Hansi Flick talking about Jamal Musiala or Florian Wirtz will not initially worry about the future of German football. “We have really good talent in the next few years,” said the national coach after his selection at the World Cup in Qatar had been extremely disappointing. However, the 57-year-old’s postscript confirmed what the German Football Association, which was at odds with this issue, has long been concerned about: “It’s going in the right direction, but we have to see what comes next. Jamal is not trained in Germany, he is educated in England.”
After the second desolate World Cup performance in a row, the “Project Future” initiated by the DFB and the German Football League in 2018 for the youngsters is once again in the public spotlight. Essentially, it is about measures and changes in training, for example “age-appropriate forms of play and competition” and further training work. Talents should be discovered and promoted with all power. The implementation has so far failed due to resistance from the state associations. The project of the future lacks unity.
“I put a lot of pressure on it from my side because I think we have to come to a conclusion,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. Less for the home EM 2024, which Flick will tackle with the well-known talents like the two 19-year-olds Musiala and Wirtz. “But for the subsequent tournaments,” said Neuendorf. It is no longer a new question as to why the football association with the most members in the world does not produce top talent in all positions to the same extent as World Cup finalists France, Spain and currently England do.
“There were already different approaches in German football, but not everyone always supported them. To a certain extent, those who didn’t support it also have a responsibility,” said long-time U21 national coach Stefan Kuntz. The two juniors’ European titles with Kuntz between 2016 and 2021 superficially contradict the thesis that not enough young professionals are coming. But how many have the potential to become world class, which was the DFB’s claim? The other U classes are not nearly as successful. The last time they took part in a U19 European Championship was in 2018. The young Germans were last at the U17 World Cup in 2017.
“Hansi Flick is absolutely right that we no longer have a large selection of center forwards, for example,” said DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke. “Germany has always been a classic country for center forwards. From Uwe Seeler to Gerd Müller and Rudi Völler. That’s bad, the clubs have to question themselves.” Like Kuntz, the CEO of Borussia Dortmund leads the German federal system with autonomous state associations and clubs. This structure is sometimes “very nice”, but it also leads to problems.
“In France, for example, it is more centralized, historically speaking. They say that a center will now be set up there, and then the French say, yes, okay. In Germany there would be a huge outcry,” said Watzke.
The experienced coach Jorge Valdano from the new world champion country Argentina criticized a kind of overprotection for mega talents in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Today the game is played on the basis of learning by heart – because education has moved from the streets to the academies,” said the 67-year-old. “The academies have made the average player better, but the difference player worse. Because everyone touches the ball the same way, because everyone has to walk the same way. That conditions the game. Nowadays, if you want to give a player freedom, he has to unlearn first, what he has acquired,” explained Valdano, himself a world champion in 1986.
The knockout round of the World Cup rightly raised the question of how the German national team would have fared against the French and Argentinians and their fast-paced football. Only with the oversupply of highly talented, attacking midfielders – in terms of age, the 23-year-old Champions League winner Kai Havertz is still one of the talents – will not win a World Cup.
The DFL currently lists 56 academies of clubs from the Bundesliga to the Oberliga. Musiala, who Germany’s record national player Lothar Matthäus certifies as world footballer skills and who was one of the few German bright spots in Qatar, was seven years old when his family moved to England. It was there that his talent was developed. “The results and the elimination have to be taken into account,” said Flick when classifying the world-class claim. “Nevertheless, we have players who play for top clubs. I’ll say it: we have quality. It’s important for the future of German football that things are done differently in training.”