Germany 2006: How I learned to stop worrying and love the German national side

Few moments in modern football history feel as transformative as Germany 2006 World Cup Klinsmann era. Jurgen Klinsmann took an unloved, pragmatic powerhouse and rebuilt it into the most likeable team on the planet. With youth, energy, and attacking football, Germany’s 2006 World Cup campaign didn’t just restore pride — it changed how the world saw German football forever.

Jurgen Klinsmann achieved many things during his hugely successful career. World Cup and Euro wins. Averaging a goal almost every other game over 600 matches. Playing for some of the best teams in Europe. And Spurs.

But surely his biggest achievement was the seemingly impossible. To make world football fall in love with the German national team again.

Prior to Germany hosting the 2006 World Cup, the national side’s reputation was at rock bottom. Or at least, as at rock bottom as serial winners can get.

Germany – and West Germany prior to reunification in 1990 - had already alienated much of the football world with their insistence at being very good at football and their habit of winning tournaments.

Across 16 World Cups and European Championships between 1972 and 2002, they won five times, made the final on four other occasions and only failed to reach the quarter finals twice.

But they seldom did it in style, gaining a reputation for rigid, cautious progress through tournaments with the handbrake firmly on – an approach that clearly left its mark on Gareth Southgate.

And they would often be cast as the bad guys, with West Germany spoiling the Netherlands total football party in 1974 and Harald Schumacher spoiling Patrick Battiston eight years later to stop Michel Platini’s French entertainers.

In many ways Klinsmann was the international equivalent to Kevin Keegan at Newcastle - which as England found it to their cost, Keegan wasn’t.

The reputation for grinding out results was helped by the fact there were seemingly infallible at penalties. They have not lost a penalty shoot-out at a major tournament since 1976 – and even that had taken Antonin Panenka to invent an entire new genre of penalty-taking.

Alongside envy, there were doubtless still attitudes and tropes left over from the Second World War. This gave extra spice to rivalries with the likes of Austria, Poland, England and the Netherlands.

So internationally West Germany/Germany’s national side was admired yes. But seldom loved.

Come 2004, the problem was they weren’t even much loved in Germany either. Difficult though it is to believe, Germany were not that good anymore. Granted, everything is relative. Germany had still reached the final of the 2002 World Cup, albeit in pretty underwhelming style with consecutive 1-0s wins against pretty mediocre opposition – still enough to be championed by most countries. And this was bookended by consecutive exits from the Euros at the group stage.

So, when Germany need a reboot (or Das Reboot as Raphael Honingstein brilliantly coined it in his book on the rebirth of German football) they turned to Klinsmann.

Klinsmann had already demonstrated his ability to rewrite his own reputation in England, launching a successful season with Spurs with a knowing swallow dive celebration which belied a sense of humour absent from most German caricatures. Now he was to do so again for the Germany national side.

In many ways Klinsmann was the international equivalent to Kevin Keegan at Newcastle - which as England found it to their cost, Keegan wasn’t. Both were massive football icons that gave up comfortable lives overseas to return to the game; Keegan playing golf in Spain, Klinsmann riding the surf in California. Both too had no discernible experience of football management. And both were committed to attack.

For Germany, this marked a sharp departure from the pragmatic, if mostly successful, approach of previous years.

A new way of playing also required fresh players, and Klinsmann put his faith in youth. The German side was completely rebuilt. Experienced heads were cast aside and a string of young talents blooded. Jens Lehmann, Lukas Podolski, Thomas Mertesacker and Bastian Schweinsteiger were all introduced.

The experiment though was nearly strangled before it could thrive, as Germany under Klinsmann were initially not that much improved. And alongside disappointing results, Klinsmann was criticised for working from home - mostly because in this case home was California.

This culminated in a 4-1 defeat to Italy in March ahead of the World Cup. Having already chosen Lehman over former caption and legend Oliver Kahn in goal, Klinsmann further provoked the old guard by relegating centre-back Christian Worns to a back-up role. Heavy defeat in Florence was compounded when Klinsmann missed a World Cup workshop in Dusseldorf – prompting criticism from German football royalty Franz Beckenbauer.

By this point Germany were ranked outside football’s top 20 and fears were mounting that the summer World Cup – the biggest global event Germany had held since reunification – was going to be let down by the national side. Indeed, such was the lack of confidence in Klinsmann, that former German Federation boss Theo Zwanziger later revealed a Plan B was in place for Matthias Sammer to takeover should the World Cup start poorly.

However, Klinsmann’s Germany began well and got better. They scored within six minutes against Costa Rica and went on to win an unusually entertaining tournament opener 4-2. Amid sweltering heat, the tournament played out as a summer dream. Vibrant, likeable and committed to attack, Germany threatened to make it all the way through.

But they seldom did it in style, an approach that clearly left its mark on Gareth Southgate.

Having knocked out Argentina in the quarter finals on penalties – some things about Germany hadn’t changed – they only missed out to eventual winners Italy in the semi-final to two last-minute goals in extra time.

Klinsmann’s Germany may not have won the tournament, but they had won friends – internationally, but also in Germany.

Indeed, in many ways Germany in the World Cup in 2006 had a similar cathartic effect to that England had at Italia 90. In the same way that Gazza and co drew a line from the bad old days of English football hooliganism and set in motion fantasy football culture and the Premier League, so the World Cup restored a national pride in Germany. The joy with which the German national side played matched the fun with which fans embraced the tournament, supported by the innovation of fanzones which turned city centres from powder keg atmospheres to a celebration of football. For the first time in 60 years, Germany could embrace its national identity – and its flag.

Klinsmann, in another nod to Keegan, was not one to overstay a welcome. He quit after the tournament to return to California.

However, in many ways Klinsmann was always a figurehead. The legacy of the German football revolution was assured as his tactically astute assistant Joachim Low took on his work and led Germany back to the top of the global football tree. Only now, they were doing it style.

How We Ranked Them

Perhaps counter-intuitively given we ranked Germany’s Euro 96 winning side as edge of greatness, we bought into the Klinsmann love story and ranked this side as

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TOUCH OF GREATNESS

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Listen To The Podcast

Join Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney — as they revisit Germany 2006, the summer when Jurgen Klinsmann transformed Die Mannschaft from efficient to electric and made the world fall in love with German football again.

👉 Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts

Further Listening

We were joined by Steve Double, part of the press pack following England’s fans through at Italia 90, for what turned out to be a story not about football hooliganism but hope, heroic failure and fish.

After incurring the wrath of Wayne Rooney and England fans after his famous wink when the former was sent off in the 2006 World Cup quarter final, Cristiano Ronaldo took his first steps off the naughty step at the Kassam Stadium in a friendly against the mighty yellows. Oxford showed him what a tough time he was in for as they allowed him only two goals as Man United won 4-1. That taught him.