In the recent world cup in South Africa in 2010, the German team was a relatively unknown quantity yet its youngsters rose to the occasion and won admiration from pundits all over the globe. But the start of the millennium wasn’t like that for German football.
How did Germans find a solution and make itself such a great and exciting young team?
When England were mauled by Germany 4-1 at South Africa 2010, the English media and fans asked one simple question that was both envy and wonder; why can’t our boys play like them?
The hardest thing to digest about such a demoralising defeat was the fact that this was a young German side with most of the players not even famous outside the Bundesliga and they were against a supposedly ‘golden generation of 3 Lions’, led by big names
like Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney, all of them who were essential components of their respective clubs.
But something like this was not a fluke and it was on the cards all along. While the English team relied heavily on a group of fantastic players who thrashed Germany 5-1 at Munich in 2001, the German team was going through a revolutionary phase, something
no one noticed.
Perhaps the 5-1 defeat acted as a catalyst and a wakeup call for the Germans. Legend, Franz Beckenbauer coached Germany to World Cup glory at Italia90 and predicted his national side to be unbeatable for years to come. His statement sounded very reasonable
judging by the strength and skill of the national side.
In 1996, a new and unified Germany (combination of East and West Germany) beat Czech Republic to win the European Championships and collected its first title and 3rd in total. And just like what’s happening in the English Premier League these
days, German Bundesliga was rich and had television money to fund the drafting of foreign players and these TV rights supplemented to aid the biggest clubs as they achieved success domestically and in Europe.
But then came France 98 and Germany was shown the door by new boys Croatia. The time had come for the German team to change the ‘once golden generation’ and give the young players their shirt numbers. But there was a problem; there weren’t any to expect
big things from.
The fast and rapid influx of TV money in the 90s saw many foreign players join the Bundesliga and an average of foreign players that was 1 or 2 per team, rose to 6 or 7 as many German clubs started relying heavily on foreign players for instant success.
This was the sole reason behind German national teams’ failure at international stage and the defeat to Croatia was a final nail in the coffin that forced German FA to take drastic measures.
Franz Beckenbauer then proposed a radical change and overhaul plan of youth football in Germany. France was looked as the role models as the French were already enjoying the results after setting up 12 elite football academies. Beckenbauer led a team of
football experts and they sketched a revolutionary idea to set up over 100 football academies and crucially, wanted the top clubs in Bundesliga to be involved in the proposal.
The Deutsche FA asked all clubs from Bundesliga 1 and 2 to start their own academies and directed them to take in at least 12 youngsters every year who are born in Germany or qualified to play for Germany.
Many clubs rubbished the idea and preferred to stick with buying foreign players until the German football authorities ordered clubs to comply or their acceptance in the Bundesliga will be revoked.
The idea was reluctantly accepted by the Bundesliga clubs but 2002 proved that they were in-fact, given a big favour.
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