Germany’s conveyor belt of talent keeps on giving
It will be the Lukas Podolski show here on Wednesday night, as a nation prepares to bid farewell to the individual whose 130th game - against England - is expected to be his last. Joachim Low conjured a tribute befitting an individual whose levity and wit have somehow made him seem much than a football player.
"He is always one for looking on the bright side of life, always on the light side of things,” Low said. "He brought that respect and human touch to the team and, of course, he's helped me out with many a oneliner over the years."
The changing of the guard was manifest in so many ways, on the day that Manchester United announced that Bastian Schweinsteiger – whose own, tearful departure from the international stage came last summer – was being released to the Chicago Fire. Low said the decision was short-sighted of the English club. "I have seen some Man United games where they could have well done with a central midfielder, a kind of chief organiser in midfield, who puts things right,” Low said.
The significant questions, now that this pair, Phillip Lahm, Miroslav Klose and Per Mertesacker have all gone, is: What kind of Germany has emerged? And how do they compare with the world champion class of three years back? Wednesday night’s encounter with the old enemy in Dortmund provides a unexpectedly profound insight, given that Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, and Mario Gomez have all reported injured – Low suggested they’ve suffered “minor hamstring injuries” – and so, too, has the flourishing Julian Draxler of Paris Saint-Germain. Ilkay Gundogan, Marco Reus and Mario Gotze are also all out of the picture.
What Low’s press conference translator called the German “transit” – ‘transition’ – since the 2014 World Cup was won has been seamless, it has to be said. A combination of the pathways into elite football which the German club game offers, as well as that emphasis on the development of articulate, thinking, selfmotivating individuals means that the conveyor belt has not stopped giving.
The transition has been gradual, like all the best of them, so a hierarchy remains, with Thomas Muller, Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Sami Khedira the leaders now, along with captain Neuer, whose absence raises the prospect of Podolski taking the armband on Wednesday for the first time.
But there is 21-year-old Julian Weigl, whose mere four caps belie the indispensable defensive midfield presence he has quietly become in Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund side. Leroy Sane’s development at Manchester City has earned him a justifiable call up and so, too, Leverkusen forward Julian Brandt. The German propensity for developing consistent central defenders – which England lack dreadfully – sees Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich, one of the surprises of last summer’s European Championships, in the picture now.
And then there is the new prospect the German nation will most look out for at the Westfalenstadion: 21year-old Timo Werner, the RB Leipzig forward whose presence in the squad for the first time follows the clamour attached to his 14-goal part in the Bundesliga’s surprise story of this season. There is a hope that Werner and Sane can resolve the profligacy in front of goal which prevented Germany prevailing over France last summer.
Podolski paid rich tribute on Tuesday to Low, who signed a new four-year contract last year. “That has given us consistency.” England have been through five managers during Low’s 11 years at the German helm.
But the departing forward gave an insight into how, when an international team no longer carries such a burden of expectation as England, all the clouds lift. "Any advice I have is to remain true to yourselves and try to develop your characters,” he said. “Never forget football is, in essence, fun."