German football has hit an all time low this weekend. Today, coach Hansi Flick became the first German head coach to ever be sacked. He amassed 12 wins in 25 games, and the relative minnows of Oman, Peru and Costa Rica are the only teams they have beaten in the past year. This coupled with the second consecutive group stage exit at the world cup last September (Flick was not in charge for the first one in 2018), means that German football has been in a steady decline since Euro 2016, where they lost 2-0 in the semi finals to a French team that have been following the opposite trajectory since then. Thus meaning that this decline does not rest solely on the shoulders of their coach, but has seemed to accelerate under his stewardship.
In football, ‘golden generations’ seem to come and go, and as is the case in many sports, the top teams don’t remain at the very pinnacle forever. In fact, Spain’s dominant run of three straight titles from 2008-2012 is very much the exception to the norm, but even their inevitable fall off wasn’t so long or drastic. Even Italy, who have not contested a World Cup knockout game since the 2006 final, have at least won the most recent Euros in 2021, despite their World Cup struggles, Hansi Flick is a good coach, having won a coveted ‘treble’ of titles with German juggernauts Bayern Munich in 2020, before succeeding Joachim Low in 2021, after a 15 year tenure. Their problems seem to be not necessarily at the grass roots-u21 level, but in developing those talented players into full fledged internationals, who can handle the transition from age group football to being professionals at the highest level. The German u21 team has performed exceptionally well at the Euros in recent years, finishing 3rd in 2015, 2nd in 2019, and as winners in 2017 and 2021, before a group stage exit at this summer’s edition. In fact, that unceremoniously early exit this summer where they failed to win a game in a group containing eventual winners England, Israel and Czechia can probably be linked to what seems to be a rot filtering through German football at the moment. Bayern Munich, typically a model of efficiency had a tumultuous season filled with dramatic events such as the now infamous fight between teammates Sadio Mane (who has since been moved on), and Leroy Sane, the sudden firing of coach Julian Nagelsmann, and then clearing out their front office the moment the season was over, even after securing yet another German title. This German title was more lost by runners-up Borussia Dortmund rather than won by Bayern Munich however, and did not really paper over the cracks. Bayern, as far and away Germany’s premier team, have always provided the bulk of the national squad, and one must wonder if unrest at Bayern is translating to even further disarray in the national setup.
Beyond the links between the issues at Bayern and Germany, the aforementioned problems with the transition of their brightest talents are also critical. Only three players from the 2021 U21 Euros triumph made the the senior squad for this current international window: Florian Writz, a midfielder, as well as Malick Thiaw and Nico Schlotterbeck, both defenders. This is crucial as Germany have had a more difficult time than most replacing their strikers of yesteryear. The likes of Miroslav Klose, Mario Gomez and Lukas Podolski, who helped fire Germany to World cup glory in 2014 have yet to be replaced. Indeed, the top German striker now is Niclas Fullkrug, who is already 30 and thus a late bloomer, and he ‘only’ scored 16 goals in the German Bundesliga last season, their highest level of domestic football. The likes of Klose and Gomez would regularly approach 30 goals for comparison. This problem has been going on for a few years now, but as the rest of the golden generation from 2014 get older and retire, there seem to be less replacements in other areas of the pitch as well. Several of the members of the 2009 U21 winning team went on to be crucial members in the golden generation, such as Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Mesut Ozil and more. German goalkeeping is in good hands even in Neuer’s absence with Barcelona’s Marc-Andre Ter Stegen being one of the world’s premier goalkeepers, and Wirtz, still only 20, seems to have Ozil’s level of talent when he can manage to stay fit, However, the other positions have not been filled by the usual wealth of world-class players you expect from Germany, and at this rate, you wonder if it is too late already for German football to avoid the embarrassment of an early exit as Hosts of Euro 2024.