It’s now official and the start of a new era is underway. Jürgen Klopp is now manager of the German national team, taking over for Julian Nagelsmann on a four-year deal with the DFB that will take him through until the 2030 World Cup. The former Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager leaves his role as Head of Global Football with Red Bull GmbH to try to get Die Mannschaft back on the footballing pedestal they were perched on top of in Brazil in 2014. Disappointments at three straight World Cups and really only one positive international tournament via Euro 2024 since their 2014 triumph simply isn’t good enough and it’s now Klopp’s turn to try to right the ship.
With their poor overall performance at this summer’s World Cup, Germany slipped to 12th in FIFA’s overall world rankings, but Klopp doesn’t want to use that as any sort of benchmark for what the expectations will be. Matches in the UEFA Nations League against the Netherlands, Greece, and Serbia is what he’ll first be tasked with as Germany manager this fall before qualifying will start for Euro 2028.
In his official press conference being announced as new Germany manager, Klopp previewed the questions the nation should be asking when it comes to how they measure their success moving forward, using France’s star-studded squad as an example. “Success is how you perform in relation to the expectations. When we ask in Germany: are we as good as France? And the answer is no, that’s not true. The question should be: do we have players like: [Ousmane] Dembélé, [Kylian] Mbappé, [Désiré] Doué, [Bradley] Barcola? The answer is no. But we still can beat them,” he stressed (via @iMiaSanMia).
With the evidence on display at the World Cup, it’s very clear there’s plenty of work ahead of Klopp, but he wants to make it his mission to equip the team with whatever personnel available to be able to beat any of the 11 nations ahead of them in the world rankings. “It’s not important to look at France, Spain, Argentina. The most important thing is to look at ourselves and how we play football. We aren’t number one in the world at the moment, that’s true. There are 11 nations ahead of us in the ranking – but we have to make beating them possible, with the way we play football,” he explained.
There was some reinvigorated belief, to Nagelsmann’s credit, from Euro 2024 and Germany being close to getting past Spain to the semifinals had it not been for an uncalled Marc Cucurella handball. THAT Germany squad showed what they were capable of, but that needs to be the bare minimum for the team moving forward under Klopp, and while he may have his work cut out for him, he’s the man who can get them to where they need to be.
