Klinsmann: DFB team can play for the World Cup title
April 29, 2026 8:40 p.m. | 3:42m
The 2026 World Cup is getting closer and closer. Former national coach Jürgen Klinsmann talks about the XXL tournament and the German chances.
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And I have to help him and the team in the country. So this World Cup is extremely, extremely important for the Americans. They are extremely proud that they are organizing this World Cup with Mexico and Canada. They want to show the world that they are a soccer-loving America. The league has grown enormously over the last 30 years and has 30 teams divided into East and West. And then at the end they play their endgame. So it’s a great infrastructure. And millions, millions of children play soccer in the United States. Girls and boys. What’s really phenomenal and that’s why your women are too. The national team is probably the strongest in the world for decades. And because of that? You’re really looking forward to it. And of course we all in the USA hope that the world will calm down a bit by then and that it will be a very, very nice and peaceful World Cup.
So the stress has reached an absolute extreme. I think it’s maxed out now. So this World Cup will have one more game for those who want to become world champions, i.e. play in the final. We are building eight games to become world champions. And of course the travel demands are great. The climate differences are very big, but it is an extreme where every team has to struggle with the same things and that’s why. I don’t think it should be an excuse. It’s a heavy burden for everyone, but they have to get through this marathon. It is also the longest World Cup ever at five and a half weeks instead of just under four weeks. But I think the person who really fights through it and keeps his concentration on the essentials and has the hunger to be there until the end will definitely deserve to become world champion.
He can do it because, on the one hand, he is a very good coach, a young guy who is very good with this young generation, especially communicatively, of course, and has a really, really good team. So the boys have so much quality that they can really be there until the end. They can play for the title, I am fully convinced of that. I think the most important thing to learn from Russia and Qatar is to just concentrate on the football tournament. And I have to help him and the team in the country. So I think we did incredible damage to the team. In other words, politics and the media landscape in relation to Russia and Qatar. We criticized these, these venues and badmouthed them. In doing so, we made ourselves feel bad and created bad karma. That is my total belief. And me? I was in Qatar and I was in Russia for a long time at both tournaments. And that really hurt me. And I think if we want to help our team, including all of us fans, then we have to give them positive energy and we have to show respect to the country, the host country Canada, Mexico and the USA with everything that’s going on and go there positively and support them positively. And if not? If I can’t go, then I can support her in a positive way when I’m at home in front of the TV. So you just need positive energy from your own country.
