After Kimmich injury
Nagelsmann appoints captain – and breaks a rule
November 13, 2025 – 6:48 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
After Joshua Kimmich’s injury, Julian Nagelsmann needs a new captain for the game against Luxembourg. When making the decision, he takes new paths.
Jonathan Tah will lead the German national football team onto the pitch as captain in the groundbreaking World Cup qualifier in Luxembourg. National coach Julian Nagelsmann announced this on the eve of the duel on Friday (8:45 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). Tah represents the ailing Joshua Kimmich, who suffered a capsule injury in his ankle.
“I don’t know if he knows it yet – but he knows it now. I hope he doesn’t get nervous now, but I don’t think so,” said Nagelsmann about Tah’s new role after arriving at the Stade de Luxembourg and laughed.
Nagelsmann explained his decision by saying that Tah was the last remaining member of the seven-member team council, which he had reappointed after the home European Championships. Kimmich’s deputies for captaincy, Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz, are injured, as are Marc-André ter Stegen and Niclas Füllkrug; Pascal Groß was not nominated.
But Tah also earned the armband in terms of sport, the national coach added. Tah “coaches a lot by nature and enjoys it, he has stabilized himself very well. At Bayern he is now doing it really, really well together with Upa (Dayot Upamecano, editor’s note).”
Nagelsmann continued to explain the “rule” that the player with the most international matches in the squad has to be the captain, “but I didn’t set it up.” In this case, Leroy Sané, who played 70 times for the DFB team, would have had to replace Kimmich: “For me it is relatively logical that the captain comes from the team council.”