LEGACY: Julian Nagelsmann's mission to harness Germany's World Cup DNA & revive a European powerhouse after back-to-back group stage exits

But at the beginning of the 2000s, the world of football was changing rapidly. The international game was becoming faster, more technical and more demanding. In Germany, too, there was a growing desire for a more modern approach. When Joachim Low took over as national coach after the 2006 World Cup, the DFB was entering a new era.

Under Low, Germany showed a different face: less fighting, more control, less reaction, more action. Low himself described this change back in 2012 with the words: "We have developed a good mix of passing and running, winning the ball and then quick counter-attacks."

It was a commitment to a style of football that didn't just chase the ball, but controlled it. The German team became a possession machine, influenced by the aesthetics of Pep Guardiola and inspired by Spain's dominance. The new style was an expression of a modernised self-image: Germany no longer wanted to just win, but also to please.

Success proved Low right. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, this style culminated in perhaps the most perfect symbiosis of order and creativity ever displayed by a German team. The combination of tactical clarity, technical precision and team harmony led to a fourth World Cup triumph – with the 7-1 semi-final win against the hosts an epoch-making moment.

It was the triumph of a new Germany, one which was now able to dominate its opponents at times instead of simply beating them down. But even in this victory lay the seeds of the crisis that was to come. The style of play became increasingly ideological, with the idea of possession becoming an end in itself.

After Germany's early exit from the 2018 World Cup, Low admitted self-critically, "My biggest misjudgement and my biggest mistake was that I believed we could get through the group stage with dominant, possession-based football. I should have prepared the team as I did in 2014, when we had a more balanced relationship between attack and defence."

These words contain an admission that German football had strayed from its own foundations. The team was technically outstanding, but its identity had been damaged. The result was a crisis that went deeper than sporting failures.

After 2014, a gradual process of alienation began. The German national team's football had developed in a direction that was modern, but no longer what was commonly referred to as 'typically German'. They wanted to be everything at once: elegant like Spain, tactically astute like France, pressing hard like England – and in the process they lost what had distinguished them for decades.

The result was teams that were structurally quite good but seemed emotionally empty. The 2018 and 2022 World Cup campaigns clearly showed that possession is not a value in itself. In 2018, it was no longer necessarily even modern. Club teams such as Guardiola's Manchester City had already implemented more intensive counter-pressing at that time.

One of Low's problems was that he had not developed enough in this regard. Seventy per cent ball control was useless without passion and clarity. The Mannschaft often seemed too well-behaved, too predictable and not ready to fight. The aura that Lineker had once described had disappeared.

The legacy that once signified strength had become a shadow. But it is precisely this legacy that is regaining importance today. At a time when football is increasingly shaped by data, structures and systems, the emotional and character-based dimension remains an underestimated factor for success.

World Cups are usually not a stage for theoretical systems, but tests of determination and tournaments of attitude. It is not necessarily the team with the best passing statistics that wins, but the one with the greatest unity. The German legacy – fighting spirit, team spirit, mental toughness – is therefore not a nostalgic idealisation, but a resource for the future.

Julian Nagelsmann has recently recognised this. Since taking over as national coach in 2023, he has regularly spoken about mentality and community. In March 2024, before the European Championship on home soil, he said: "The pressure we are under is the pressure to be successful. Everything else is just stuff that comes from outside. It's football and it should stir emotions."

This can be understood as a programmatic new beginning. Nagelsmann wanted football to trigger something again – in players, in fans and in the country. After the tournament, in which Germany was once again recognisable as a team, he explained: "I said we need the support of the people of our country because we know that we simply weren't good enough in the last tournaments. And after the last few games, I think the fans have realised that we want to achieve something and change things."

He was referring to what Low had lost in his final years: the connection between the team, identity and the audience. Nagelsmann formulated his claim even more clearly at the end of July at the International Coaches' Congress held by the German Football Coaches Association in Leipzig.

"We don't have to be Spain 2.0," he said. Instead, he insisted it was necessary to "think old-fashioned" and, in the old German style, "think more defensively and defend". The comeback of the German virtues was on.

This is a clear signal that German football wants to be itself again, so to speak. Not a copy nor a stylistic imitator, but a team with its own character. It is no coincidence that Nagelsmann repeatedly spoke of "workers" in this context, players who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the collective. He wants characters who may be less brilliant technicians but have stronger personalities. This attitude is in the tradition of those teams that once commanded Lineker's respect.

Nagelsmann has already called upon Bayer Leverkusen's Robert Andrich, Brighton midfielder Pascal Gross, and Grischa Promel from Hoffenheim to be his 'workers'. Borussia Dortmund's Waldemar Anton and Nico Schlotterbeck, are also among them, but both still have to establish themselves in the Germany team. Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka, who are part of the regular squad, as well as Jonathan Tah from Bayern Munich, have joined Antonio Rudiger and RB Leipzig captain David Raum in taking this step, too.

Nagelsmann's definition of a "worker" refers to players who stand out for their running strength, tackling and tactical reliability. They are less responsible for creative moments and more for stability, security and maintaining the team structure. Andrich, Gross and Promel embody this kind of player because they close down space, seek out tackles and maintain their presence even in phases of high intensity.

The Dortmund duo of Anton and Schlotterbeck, along with established centre-back pairing Tah and Rudiger, bring physical robustness and anticipation to the defence, representing reliability and strong communication skills. Kimmich and Goretzka are important in midfield thanks to their positioning, running and leadership roles. For Nagelsmann, these players are central components of a functional team that is less focused on individual brilliance and more on collective work and resilience.

At the same time, Nagelsmann recognised that mentality is created through structures and leadership. Ideally, it should lead to psychological stability among the players, which can then be converted into playful ease on the pitch.

"What's important is that other teams perceive us as a footballing nation again. In general, I want us to get on the bus and drive to the game with everyone thinking: 'Of course we're going to win today, we're Germany, we're a footballing nation, we're going to win',” Nagelsmann explained to Blickpunkt Sport just over a year ago.

For Nagelsmann, this is the emotional foundation of his project. It is not about a return to the football of past decades, but about rediscovering an inner conviction that had been lost over the years. Modern German football should show attitude again – but without losing sight of the ball, of course. It should be played in a modern way, but feel German.

The balance between innovation and tradition, between possession and bite, is, so to speak, at the heart of this reorientation. The legacy plays a dual role here: on the one hand, it is a warning of how easily one can lose one's identity; on the other, it is also a guide to how to rediscover it.

Historically, German football has always worked best when it was self-aware. The teams of 1974 and 1990 had technically outstanding players, but they thrived above all on structure, clarity and discipline. The 2014 team combined these virtues with modern elegance.

The teams that came after lost this balance. Belief in their own playing style gave way to attempts to somehow please everyone – fans, analysts and aesthetes. The result was a team that could do many things but lacked charisma. Nagelsmann's attempt to reintroduce more workers is therefore not backward-looking, but forward-looking: he is seeking to combine attitude and skill.

The fact that this approach works can be seen in public perception. While the national team was considered bloodless in the years leading up to the 2024 European Championship, genuine enthusiasm was felt again for the first time during and after the tournament. The football seemed emotionally charged and less sterile. Players as diverse in style as Jamal Musiala and Rudiger embody the new self-image: technical skill paired with determination. This mixture is the core of the German legacy in its modernised form.

But why is this legacy relevant again today? Because international football has entered a phase in which pure ball possession no longer guarantees success. Teams such as France and Argentina show that tournament victories are based on mentality and adaptability. The best teams in the world are those that keep their nerve in the decisive moments. Germany was once the epitome of this quality.

In a globalised, tactically sophisticated game of football, technique alone is no longer enough. What sets teams apart is not data analysis, but culture; a team that knows what it stands for will remain stable even in times of crisis. This provides direction, orientation and identity. So when Nagelsmann emphasises that "resilience, team spirit and passion" are crucial, he is describing the foundation for the future.

German football is once again at a crossroads. The memory of Lineker's statement seems like a mirror today: it used to be an expression of strength, then it became more ironic. But the possibility that it could one day be understood as a compliment again is real.

Under Nagelsmann, Germany are not trying to copy the past, but rather to understand it correctly. The coach wants the strength that used to come from discipline and willpower to come from team spirit, clarity and mental stability today.

The legacy of German football artistry lives on in moments when teams push themselves to their limits – in thrilling extra-time, in penalty shootouts, in mental duels. Rediscovering this heritage does not mean romanticising the past, but rather harnessing its potential for the future.

Nagelsmann has now embarked on this path. Whether he will be successful depends not only on his tactics and his system, but also on his ability to combine that old strength with new passion. If he succeeds, then Lineker's statement could one day sound again as it was once meant: as an expression of respect for a team that knows who it is – and that wins in the end because it lives up to its legacy.