Germany lost to Paraguay this week, missing out on advancing to the last 16 of the FIFA World Cup for the third consecutive year.
And once again, instead of diagnosing and treating the root cause of the failure, the four-time world champion turned to the now familiar response: finding a scapegoat.
Eight years ago, media figures and politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) focused on and criticized two players, Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan, after the team stumbled in the group stages and failed to defend their 2014 title.
The pair had accepted an invitation to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a state visit to England a month before the start of the World Cup in Russia. The two men, both from Türkiye, were shamed for their decision. The criticism was so high that there was speculation that they would be removed from the team. When his team was eliminated in the group stage, Ozil cited the criticism in a letter explaining his decision and announced his retirement from international football at just 29 years old.
“I no longer support being a scapegoat for his incompetence and inability to carry out his duties,” Ozil wrote, referring to then-German Football Federation president Reinhard Grindel, who resigned in 2019 amid corruption allegations. Ozil accused Grindel of wanting to take him “out of the team” after Grindel criticized his meeting with Erdogan. However, Ozil thanked Germany national team coaches Joachim Loew and Oliver Bierhoff for defending him and supporting him.
Eight years later, in an interview with Magenta TV after the game against Paraguay, German national team coach Julian Nagelsmann tried to find a similar faller. He singled out Kurdish and Yazidi striker Deniz Undav for criticism.
Coach Nagelsmann said: “We had to take the lead in the first minute. There were only four of us in front of the goal. All we had to do was pass the ball to the sides. All we had to do was put the ball into the empty goal. Deniz (Undav) managed to put the ball in at the far post.” “There are only a few moments where you have to break through a low block with a very simple action.”
To their credit, German fans didn’t take the bait and focused their anger on Nagelsmann. Nagelsmann’s puzzling tactical and personnel decisions were a talking point heading into the final round.
Unduff was never in the manager’s favor. The incident showed that the rift between the German coach and the Stuttgart striker continues.
In March, Undahu scored the winning goal in a friendly against Ghana, but instead of praising him, Nagelsmann criticized his fitness and coordination. The former Bayern Munich manager was widely reprimanded and later apologized to the player.
When the World Cup first started, it looked like the story would have a happy ending. It took Unduff seven minutes to come off the bench and score the tying goal against Ivory Coast in Toronto. In the final stages, they even snatched the winner. Had it not been for Undav’s five goals in the first two games of the World Cup, Germany could have finished third and faced elimination in the group stage.
His substitution in the first hour of the game against Paraguay ended a new dark chapter in the history of the German national team.
It wasn’t always like this. Germany canceled the World Cup in Brazil 12 years ago because those in charge pointed out problems that were beginning to emerge at first-team level. At the turn of the century, Germany was no longer producing world-class talent and its success in competitions depended on goalkeeping heroics in Oliver Kahn. The German team also lagged behind tactically and struggled to produce world-class coaches, which also affected their youth development.
The German Football Federation (DFB) tackled these issues head-on, investing in youth academies across the country and emphasizing technical ability over size and athleticism. Jurgen Klinsmann and Loew’s leadership promoted these ideas at the top level, creating a new Germany that was as dominant as the team of a generation before, but completely different.
Twenty years later, Germany is now stuck in its arbitrary ways. Nagelsmann, who coaches the national team and has never played the sport professionally, has earned the nickname “Laptop Trainer” for his detailed use of data.
Nagelsmann may understand the nuances of the game, but his aloof nature, past conflicts with players, chops and changes leave many in doubt as to whether he has a feel for the game.
Part of Germany’s World Cup legend is their success in pressure situations. Until Monday’s loss to Paraguay, Germany had never lost on penalties at a FIFA World Cup. Not only did Germany win all four of their previous shootouts at the World Cup, but they also missed just one penalty kick out of 18 shootout attempts. He failed three times against Paraguay.
In many ways, the way the DFB has treated a talent like Undav shows why the national football team is in its current crisis.
The development of Undav was not a product of the Academy. It was the result of hard work and sacrifice. He has worked as a machine operator in a factory. Despite scoring 104 goals in 163 games in Germany’s third and fourth tiers, he was never approached by a Bundesliga club. Unduff then moved to Belgium, where he continued to score goals, earning a transfer fee of 7 million euros (approximately 800 million yen) to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.
And even with the national team, he had to face public backlash from his coach.
Much was made of Undav’s Kurdish heritage and immigrant background early in the tournament. The player, who celebrated his first World Cup goal by dancing the Kurdish Kurmanji with teammate Antonio Rudiger, was similarly German in his candid assessment following the group stage defeat to Ecuador on June 26.
“I felt they (Ecuador) wanted it more than us,” he said, imploring his teammates to change their mindset: “We have to protect ourselves more. When things get sticky, we have to get sticky too.”
But Nagelsmann was critical of his comments. “Ecuador wanted it more than us? That’s nonsense,” he said.
Unduff turns 30 this year. He may not play the next time the German national team participates in the World Cup. However, if Germany do indeed want to progress further in future World Cups, the DFB will do well to examine why his talent was overlooked by the academy system introduced to ensure the new generation of Unduff players make their national team debuts at 17 rather than 27.
