A country always needs its football team. From the affection that tumbled out of the Allianz Arena after Friday’s 5-1 win over Scotland in the opening match of Euro 2024, it is clear how eager Germany is to embrace theirs.
For a long time, such a thing seemed unlikely. Since winning the World Cup a decade ago, the national team and its people have been falling out of love. Because of resentment towards the German FA’s commercialism. Because of scandal. Because, as with the most recent World Cup, hosted by Qatar, of a more general disillusionment with the state of world football.
And also because Germany have not been very good.
They suffered consecutive group-stage exits from the World Cups in 2018 and 2022, with all sorts of dreadful results before, during and after. Germany have vanished from the summit of the sport — so dramatically that the prospect of a home tournament is a source of trepidation.
But when the time came and Friday arrived, the German flags came out, young and old faces wore dashes of black, red and yellow paint, and the host nation’s people turned up to the stadium in Munich hoping to fall in love. Wanting to, but without knowing if they would get the chance.
The night before that game against Scotland, head coach Julian Nagelsmann was tense. During his pre-match media session, he was professional and courteous and said all the right things, but he was ever-so-slightly irritable, upbraiding chatty journalists making a hubbub at the back of the room.
Nagelsmann celebrates Friday’s win with fans in the stands (Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Images)
When it subsided, he spoke of his players’ need to get the public on their side and to give them a reason to believe in this Germany.
There are no secrets. Everybody knows that people have been disenchanted and have been for some time. Nagelsmann’s appointment, in September 2023, did not immediately change that. In fact, his first few friendlies passed without the needle having moved much at all. Defeats by Austria and Turkey in November did little for the local mood and it was only really the wins over France and Netherlands in March that encouraged Germans to pay more attention to the team and then start looking forward to their latest home European Championship.
Excitement has been building. The bunting has gone up, the usual merchandising tat is being sold in all the right places, and Peter Schilling’s Major Tom — the 1983 hit recently adopted by German fans — has re-charmed everybody with its soaring choruses. But it has been so fragile.
Nagelsmann knew that. He understood that a bad result against Scotland, or even just an uncertain performance, would allow the discontent that has been dammed to spill out. When describing pressure on coaches, it is much too easy to sink into cliché about the hopes of a nation or the watching world. But the responsibility on Nagelsmann’s shoulders has been weightier than many probably realise.
Nagelsmann and Musiala’s embrace spoke volumes (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
There was a time when, on the tournament’s opening night, the Germans could have been expected to plough through a side of Scotland’s standing. They began the 2010 and 2014 World Cups with 4-0 wins, over Australia and Portugal, playing third-gear football on the way to a result they knew they would achieve.
Friday night was different. There was urgency and uncertainty in the air, and the responses to the goals betrayed that. Look at the wild eyes and body language — that was a Germany under pressure.
Jamal Musiala played brilliantly, mesmerising Scottish defenders and scoring what, when the champions lift the trophy on July 14, might still be one of the best goals of the tournament. But when the 21-year-old was substituted on 74 minutes, he almost fell into Nagelsmann’s arms, hanging in his embrace long after Thomas Muller had taken his place on the pitch.
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The victory over Scotland was full of individual flourishes and highlights that will last in the minds of those who saw them. Scotland were not the strongest and were reduced to 10 players just before half-time but, fundamentally, it was the finest German performance in years and the strongest endorsement of Nagelsmann’s tenure.
A magical performance from Musiala :magic_wand::de:@Vivo_GLOBAL | #EUROPOTM pic.twitter.com/spbLGVwHJ3
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 14, 2024
When Nagelsmann strode into his post-match press conference, his demeanour was changed from the day before. He arrived with a lighter stride, talked calmly of “good starts” and “next steps” and had words of praise for almost all of his players. It was a long, relieved exhale at the end of two hours during which the country rejoiced but also — finally — relaxed.
Germany fans react during Friday’s game with Scotland (Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images)
Over the next few days, there will be a rush to announce the beginning of a second ‘sommermarchen’ — a new summer fairy tale.
In England terms, the 2006 World Cup played here occupies a very Euro 96-like quality in Germany, and many people long for the warm glow of national pride associated with that tournament, where, as in 1996, the hosts got to the semi-finals then lost in heartbreakingly late fashion. That eagerness feels like desperation at times, the hope being that by talking about 2006 enough, and forcing it into conversation, the mood from 18 years ago will reappear.
Nagelsmann was asked about that on Friday night.
“Is this going to be another 2006? Are Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala the new Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski?”
It is, at times, as if permission is being sought to be nostalgic. But this reflects that Germany is experiencing a strange time.
Even for those who have been in the country for just a few days at these Euros, it is clearly a changed place. Visitors have been aghast at the unreliability of Deutsche Bahn, the state-funded railway network. It has been plagued by delays and disruptions for years and its decline, in the abstract, likely represents an erosion of a national tenet.
Ideologically, Germany is wrestling with difficult and divisive conversations about immigration and re-armament. Since Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his Zeitenwende (turning point) speech in February 2022, which announced the most dramatic shift in foreign policy since the end of the Second World War, the question of military spending has become an increasingly prominent topic.
Germany’s players enjoying a moment with supporters after Friday’s win (Inaki Esnaola/Getty Images)
Rheinmetall, a weapons manufacturer, recently became a primary sponsor of Borussia Dortmund. Last week, Bundeswehr Tag (Armed Forces Day) was celebrated in cities across the country. Flyers promoting it can still be found at bus stops and train stations, and stuck on walls across towns.
In the recent European elections, lowering the voting age to 16 did not produce the anticipated surge of support for the Greens, but rather a startling 11-point bump for the far-right AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) among 16 to 24 year-olds who, according to research, are increasingly concerned about the economy, their futures, and global conflict.
Things are changing — to what, nobody seems certain, but old assumptions are less secure. Increasingly, Germany feels politically fractious and divided.
It puts a different lens on this European Championship and on what the German people need from their football team.
Outwardly, that manifests in the clamour for another summer fairy tale. Really, it’s a desire for distraction, a need for the world to slow down for a few weeks. What could be more comforting and reassuring than Germany winning football matches again?
This seems to be the role in which Nagelsmann and his players have been cast.
They have made an excellent start. They can win hearts and minds and sweep the country off their feet. They can absolutely win this competition, and that would be a wonderful story.
But it would be a different sort of fairy tale.
(Top photo: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)