The trick behind German football success

The major indicator for success of football activities in a given country is the consistent achievements from the national soccer team. Taking an example of football nations like Brazil and Argentina, there is no doubt that Germany football is on the rise based on their national team performance since the 2004 European championships. Germany has invested heavily in youth football and this has gifted the national team with a youthful winning squad. The national mannschaft today is at less than 25 years, the youngest team that has ever played for Germany in a World Cup, and had the youngest team during the concluded 2010 world cup. Germans became more concerned about youth soccer development in 2002-2003, then running a youth academy became an obligation for a club to play in Bundesliga or any top flight football in Germany. Many clubs then invested millions of Euros in the development of soccer academies that has led to production of a handful of talented youngsters not only in Europe but in the whole world. The likes of Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira, Mesut Oezil and Manuel Neuer among others are one of the best players around Europe and perhaps in the world today. These players started their football careers in soccer club academies through all levels. In these youth academies you have to have a certain number of teams, you need to have a certain number of coaches who are educated, who have a coaching license, and always start with the under-12 category. Under 12 is the best age category you have to run a youth soccer academy and proper player development has to go through various age categories successively. For Germans, having seen the rise of numerous stars in the bundesliga and playing at top level, managers who run these academies are very proud. This is a clear indication that several youngsters may come up to keep Germany football at high level. Therefore the World Cup and other major soccer tournaments are a, very good platform to show that the Bundesliga is a good league. The Bundesliga was the league with the second most players in the World Cup from the very beginning. As many as 78 players came out of the Bundesliga at the 2010 world cup, 23 of them were German nationals and 55 were players from other countries. In the semi-finals and the quarter-finals of the world cup, the Bundesliga was the league with the highest number of players. This gives soccer fans from around the world a reason to change their minds about the Bundesliga status. Another reason to mention here is the ability to control financial influx. Based on financial reports from economists around Europe, Bundesliga is one of the leagues in Europe with the lowest amount of debt. If you look at the debt levels of most giant Bundesliga teams, then you get the feeling that there is some regulatory mechanism to protect clubs from financial constraints. In Germany, there is no player who is bought for the equivalent of €80 million. While spending sprees have been a culture in English and Spanish football, many big clubs in these countries are carrying big debts which are detrimental to their future. Many of these teams are investing a lot of money for single or individual players. Some of them are financed by debt to cover the costs of a player and this is not really the German business model. German national team today is a multi-cultural society with players various origins and cultures. The German national team today has players of African and Brazilian origin. This is a society where people like to join, live, and be. The national mannschaft today is very different compared to former days. For example in 1998 world cup all players who played for Germany had German parents. Right now there are a lot of players with imigration backgrounds. Nevertheless they play for Germany and they play very well, the likes of Jerome Boateng of Manchester city and Brazilian born Cacau from Stuttgart reflect the current soccer culture within the German national team. This is likely not to change any more in the future because German society will not change from good to worse. Therefore the German national team right now is proof of the success of the German national model. josephmunich06@yahoo.co.uk