Germany’s World Cup squad
The birthplaces of the World Cup drivers show something unusual
May 31, 2026 – 3:32 p.mReading time: 4 minutes
26 nominated players and a training goalkeeper travel to the USA for Germany. The majority comes from three federal states. Is that a problem?
The German national team takes off on Tuesday. From Frankfurt, the DFB team travels to the United States, which is hosting the World Cup together with Canada and Mexico. The first destination is not North Carolina, where the German training camp is, but Chicago. The World Cup dress rehearsal against the USA will take place here next Saturday (June 6th). National coach Julian Nagelsmann can finally take full advantage.
While he will have to do without Kai Havertz (missing due to the CL final) and Manuel Neuer (load management after injury) against Finland this Sunday (from 8:45 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online), all players will be available to him against the USA if nothing else happens.
Embed
When you take a closer look at the DFB’s 26-man squad, you notice that the majority of the players come from three federal states. 19 of the 26 nominees come from Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg or North Rhine-Westphalia – including the one near Bonn Born Jonas Urbig, who is traveling with us as a training goalkeeper, there would be 20 out of 27 players.
Six players were born in other federal states. Antonio Rüdiger in Berlin, Felix Nmecha and Jonathan Tah in Hamburg, Maximilian Beier in Brandenburg, Nick Woltemade in Bremen, Deniz Undav in Lower Saxony. Player number 26 is Waldemar Anton, who was born in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.
The proportion of players from North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria is 73 percent, which is more than two thirds of the squad. However, the three most populous federal states make up “only” 50.9 percent of the German population. Large federal states such as Hesse (around 6.3 million inhabitants) and Rhineland-Palatinate (around 4.1 million) are not represented at all. The new federal states are only represented once by Maximilian Beier, who was born in Brandenburg an der Havel.
How much does the place of birth say?
The place of birth is one thing, where the players ended up growing up is another. Felix Nmecha, for example, was born in Hamburg, but when he was six years old he moved to England with his family. Jamal Musiala, who comes from Stuttgart, also spent a considerable part of his childhood in Great Britain.
Waldemar Anton, who was born in Uzbekistan, came to Hanover as a two-year-old. Deniz Undav from Lower Saxony might not be where he is today without his move to SV Werder Bremen as a ten-year-old.
