Defending your title?
Bayern player could become key to World Cup success
November 3, 2025 – 5:24 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The German juniors start the World Cup in Qatar as defending champions. The plan: create something big again.
Marc-Patrick Meister formulated his team’s route without further ado: The coach of the German U17 national team wants to attack at the top again at the World Cup in Qatar. Before the opening game against Colombia on Tuesday (from 3:45 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online), he emphasized: “We are clear internally about the fact that we want to stay here for the entire duration of the tournament and therefore also want to become world champions.”
Germany will compete in Qatar as reigning title holders. The team around offensive player Wisdom Mike from FC Bayern is one of the favorites for the tournament, which is being held for the first time with 48 teams (November 3rd to 27th). In an interview with the association, coach Meister recalled the successful tournament two years ago, in which the 2006 class, with the European title behind them, also won the world championship title under coach Christian Wück. The team at the time developed a “flow”, a dynamic that carried everyone along. We now want to recreate this feeling.
In 2023, the DFB team won the final against France on penalties in Indonesia (4:3). Talents like Konstantin Heide (then SpVgg Unterhaching, now Hertha BSC), Finn Jeltsch and Noah Darvich (both VfB Stuttgart), Assan Ouedraogo (RB Leipzig) and Paris Brunner (AS Monaco) attracted attention with their performances. Mike and his teammates now want to build on this at the Aspire Academy in Qatar.
The 17-year-old offensive player in particular could be the key to success. Mike recently made his debut for FC Bayern in both the Bundesliga and Champions League. “The World Cup is certainly a very, very good platform for him,” said Munich sports director Christoph Freund.
In addition to Colombia, North Korea (November 7th) and El Salvador (November 10th) are also waiting for the German selection in Group G. Coach Meister emphasized that a strong preliminary round was important. The goal is to get a lot of points and a good goal difference in order to “gain advantages in the tournament tree”. In total, the coach nominated 21 players from nine clubs, including four players each from Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Meister emphasized how important the tournament is for his young players born in 2008. “Competing yourself here with the best players in the world is a formative experience,” he said: “This is an important milestone.”