The German Youth System: Creating world champions
It has been said by many, that the foundations of Germany lifting the 2014 World Cup at The Maracana, were laid some 14 years ago. They were dumped out of the European Championships in Holland and Belgium at the group stages, finishing bottom.
The writers of a 2011 report on the Bundesliga stated “At the turn of the millennium German football stared disaster in the face – it completely lacked a professional foundation”. The German football association (DFB) came to the decision that they needed to revamp the whole process of producing young German footballers. In early 2001, the DFB made it compulsory for every club in the German top flight to run a youth academy. And a few years later, this rule was extended to the top two divisions, meaning 36 clubs had a mandatory requirement to run youth academies by qualified football coaches.
In 2011, 275 of 525 players in the Bundesliga, were trained at the academies (52%). This set up, obviously came at a price. Between 2001 and 2011 the German FA spent over half a billion Euros, a figure that other nations, like England could never have afforded, with the construction of the new Wembley Stadium, in this period. However, the investment is for all the world to see on the football pitch, with Germany reaching a minimum Semi Final place in the last three World Cup’s, lifting the latter. There was also an all-German Champions League final in 2012 when Bayern Munich met Borussia Dortmund, coincidently, at the lavish new Wembley, with both teams littered with German talent.
Since the 2002-03 season, records have been kept of how much money has been put into the academies by clubs. The 2003 figure was 47 million Euros, which has rose each season by at least two to three million. Clubs in the top two leagues are recognising their money is reaping rewards, with the players that their coaches and academies are producing.
What Germany has now, as well as a Jules Rimet trophy, is a system where they can identify young footballers. They can take them to a state of the art academy, teach them how to play, and when they are ready, throw them in at the highest level. They can do this continuously with the money the German FA and the club teams throw into the pot. The costs are high, but the rewards are greater.
Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer and Mario Gotze are just three to mention, who had an unbelievable World Cup in Brazil. All came from the German Youth System and are plying their trades at Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. 14 of the 23 Germans that lifted the World Cup were 25 or younger. How many more World and European Championships could they go on to win? Imagine what England could have produced with a similar youth model, and similar funding. Instead, we got a flash new stadium, which now sees American Football played on.
