Sammer: Germany has lost football identity, average sold as top class

Yahoo

14-07-2025

Matthias Sammer, Borussia Dortmund consultant and TV pundit speaks during an interview ahead of the UEFA Champions League soccer match between FC Bologna and Borussia Dortmund at Renato dallZAra. German football has lost its identity and should stop selling mediocrity as world class, former national team player Matthias Sammer has said. Fabio Sasso/dpa
German football has lost its identity and should stop selling mediocrity as world class, former national team player Matthias Sammer has said.
Sammer, a Euro 1996 winner who later became a Bundesliga coach and German Football Federation sporting director, told Monday's edition of Kicker sports magazine that striking a balance between tradition and innovation has not worked.
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"German football has lost its basic identity and with it its main strength," Sammer said.
Sammer said that possession football and tactical flexibility through the influence of foreign coaches were necessary but had been rated higher than traditional values which were dismissed as "old school."
"What does German football stand for today? We are head over heels in love with tactics and possession, have improved by adopting them, but we have lost essential things," he said.
"As you can see from our football history, us Germans have always been united, robust and compact as a team. As a team, we were a machine. Today, we're just a little machine at best."
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Germany are four-time World Cup winners and have three Euro titles. The last title came at the 2014 World Cup, they went out in the group stage of the past two editions, and finished fourth and last at last month's Nations League finals.
"We are still stronger at glossing over things than at critical analysis. German football must learn again not to sell average as world class," Sammer said.
He named the Euro 2024 home tournament, where Germany went out in the quarter-finals against eventual champions Spain, as a prime example.
"The quarter-final at Euro 2024 was sold to the public like a title," he said. "But we no longer talk about the unpleasant things."
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Sammer insisted that "the best must be our benchmark" again in the future in order to be successful again.
Referring to Sammer's statements, former Germany captain Lothar Matthäus said in his Sky TV column on Monday that he didn't quite share Sammer's grim assessment.
'German football has always been about mentality," the 1990 World Cup winner said. "We've always believed in ourselves to the end and that's why other teams didn't want to play against Germany.
"That was the case 40 years ago and we've also seen it recently with the U21 national team," he said, referring to the U21 team's run into the final at the recent Euros.
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But Matthäus agreed with Sammer that "we are not as good as we sometimes say we believe we are.
"Of course there is something missing, Matthias is right there, but we are not far off the top, although the Nations League went bad again," he said.
Matthäus said that efficiency in front of goal was the main problem, and would welcome a debate on this issue.
"(Coach) Julian Nagelsmann and (sporting director) Rudi Völler can't just gloss over everything, but you also have to realise that there is a lack of composure in finishing and of experience," he said.