Julian Nagelsmann will remain coach of the German national team until 2028. This is the right decision for all pages – and a very important signal.
The message came out of nowhere and therefore developed so much force: national coach Julian Nagelsmann extends his contract at the German Football Association (DFB) prematurely until 2028. With a view to the current media company, it may already be regarded as a considerable performance that this message Not in the run-up to transfer experts, insiders and all-close-gran editorial offices as a hurry “Breaking News” into the world.
In force, however, it also unfolded for another reason. Because the early contract extension of the 37-year-old is a signal in many ways. A exclamation mark: he believes in it. To the team, his players, their possibilities. And: he also believes in the DFB.
Even more: the eloquent human -catcher Nagelsmann has revived this belief himself, cultivated – and passed on. To the professionals, to the public, to the fans. And that’s his greatest earnings. The path taken with his appointment in early autumn 2023 was “not yet over”, Nagelsmann said in the DFB’s declaration. “We all created something together – fans, team and coaching team – that we want to develop successfully now. We want to win titles together,” he continued. A conviction from these words speaks how it has been painfully missing for years. A conviction that is infected.
In retrospect, Nagelsmann came to the DFB – just when the largest sports association in the world, who got into the spin by all kinds of misconduct in previous years, began cleaning up. At that time it was hard to imagine that the Bayer, which was geared towards functionality, would endure it for a long time with such a dysfunctional association. Tax investigators regularly carried out carloads of incriminating documents from the highest physical stress. Its management of the management lost himself in embarrassing power games. Above all: his flagship of the national team meandering in a sporting mediocrity and was further away from his fans than Oliver Bierhoff from the Best Marketing Award.
No. But Rudi Völler, who always succeeds in a unique way in all soccer bones, had sparked a spirit of change that Nagelsmann adopted his own way through his appointment to the sports director. He recognized himself: If he came into office as a emergency solution, there could currently be no more suitable national coach. And then he knew how to convert this spirit of change into a new euphoria around the team. It just fit.
Nagelsmann did it. The DFB team? Enthusiastic again with attractive football from a young, hungry team with potential, which is rarely found in current world football. The players? Have the lust for the national team, exhaust play joy, keyword Wusiala – and those with ambitions know: nomination is not unreachable, since the performance principle is finally true again, which, under the official pleasure of Nagelsmann’s predecessors, was most selectively implemented for years. The fans? Are finally closer to the four -time world champion, Nagelsmann not only pretends to be sustainability, he lives – with his players.
“In September 2023, when I came to the DFB, I could not have imagined being a national coach beyond the home European Championship,” said Julian Nagelsmann in the association’s announcement. The fact that he could imagine it and sealed it with a signature shows what has changed since then.