Football dwarf has been getting stronger lately
©IMAGO
Luxembourg’s national coach Jeff Strasser sees his team developing from a football dwarf to a candidate for a major tournament. “If one day everything fits together, then the unthinkable may be conceivable. We should be ambitious and humble,” the 51-year-old told the “Funke Mediengruppe” before Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Germany in Sinsheim.
Luxembourg started the World Cup qualification in Group A with two defeats and is in last place without a point behind Slovakia (six points), Northern Ireland and Germany (three each). Only the group winner qualifies directly for the 2026 World Cup finals. The second place will contest the playoffs in March. In the event of a defeat against the DFB team, whose squad value is over 700 million euros higher, the starting position would be almost hopeless.
The optimism of the former 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Borussia Mönchengladbach player, who took over as national coach last August, is based on a development in youth work that began 15 years ago in the small state, which now has almost 680,000 inhabitants. “Imagine our association like a large youth training center in the Bundesliga. We train the talents centrally and together and only give them to their clubs on the weekends,” said Strasser, who got his coaching license together with national coach Julian Nagelsmann. And if the level of the players increases, so does that of the national team, according to the calculation.
The national team at least made people sit up and take notice last year with draws against Belarus, Ireland, Belgium and Northern Ireland. There was also a 1-0 win against Sweden. Despite the less than optimal starting situation with two home defeats at the start against Northern Ireland (1:3) and Slovakia (0:1), Strasser wants to give his team a decent calling card when he returns to Germany: “I’m not coming to the class reunion, we want to play a good game.”