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Much has been made recently of the rebirth of the German footballing identity, initiated on the back of the national side’s abject performances at Euro 2000, with a focus on youth development being key to their resurgence as one of the dominant footballing nations. Saturday’s all-German Champions League final at Wembley is testament to the possibilities of such a philosophy, with a large proportion of the players due to be on display as products of the fully functioning development project instilled nationwide in 2002.
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In 1997, German football had reached a pinnacle. Its national side had become European champions a year previously at Euro 96 and Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 had just triumphed in Europe, winning the Champions League and Uefa Cup respectively. Everything looked rosy for German football, but the recent success had masked a problem that had been developing within the national game for the past decade – increased revenues at club level had led to a huge influx of foreign talent, doubling the number of non-German players turning out in the Bundesliga from 17% in 1992 to 34% by 1997. Homegrown talent was no longer making it through the system and the national side was left with a dearth of talent – a situation confirmed a year later with a relatively poor display by an ageing German side at the 98 World Cup in France, which ended in a quarter-final defeat to Croatia.
With the number of foreign players in the Bundesliga continuing to rise (reaching 50% by the start of the 99-00 season), the German football federation (DFB) decided something needed to be done to halt the decline of home-grown talent. Looking to France and its national academy, Clairefontaine for inspiration, the DFB proposed a radical overhaul of its youth development setup – proposing 121 national talent centres across the country, each employing two full-time coaches, with the aim of developing the skills of 10-17 year old footballers. Allied to this was a new requirement for all teams in Germany’s top two tiers to build youth academies to DFB’s standards.
Initial progress of the academies was slow, with the percentage of foreign players in the Bundesliga reaching a record 60 per cent in the 2002-03 season. But ten years on, the system is flourishing, providing national coach Joachim Löw with an array of talent to select from – Julian Draxler (19), Andre Schürrle (22), Sven Bender (24), Thomas Müller (23), Holger Badstuber (24), Mats Hummels (24), Mesut Ozil (24), Ilkay Gundogan (22), Mario Götze (20), Marco Reus (23), Toni Kroos (23), to name but a few, have all developed from the system put in place in 2002.
With the inarguable success of the German system, coming from a similar position that English football now finds itself in, it seems only logical that the Football Association’s newly appointed director of elite development, Dan Ashworth is looking to Germany for inspiration. However, though there are many lessons to be learned from Germany, there are a number of factors that make it impossible for the English game to entirely follow suit.
Following the model set out by Germany, or indeed that of Spain or France, was made impossible back in 1992 when the Football Association handed control of the top division over to the Premier League. At the time, one of the major selling points of the new league was to create a stronger national side, but over a decade later, Roy Hodgson has been left with a smaller pool of players at his disposal than any previous England manager, with only 34.9% of players in the Premier League eligible for England. Since its creation, the increased revenue generated by the Premier League has led to an ever-increasing number of highly paid, foreign talent making up most of the match day squads. This has become the major obstacle for youth development in England – investment in youth facilities at Premier League clubs is second to none, but the products of those academies simply aren’t getting the chance to develop at first team level, their path blocked by often substandard foreign imports.
In 2002, youth development in Germany was accelerated by the financial collapse of the Bundesliga’s major benefactor, Kirsch TV. The withdrawal of previously significant TV revenue led to a financial crisis for most of Germany’s clubs, leaving huge, unsustainable wage bills. The only solution was to release high-earning and often mediocre foreign players and replace them with youngsters from their own youth sides. This acted as a catalyst for youth development in Germany, illustrated best initially, by the success of a side like VFB Stuttgart under Felix Magath in 2003-04, beating Manchester United in the Champions League with a side full of homegrown talent.
Unlike in Germany however, this will not happen in England as long as BSkyB continues to bankroll the Premier League, pouring more and more money in each year, inflating wages and leading to a continued influx of foreign players and managers and consequently blocking the way for young talent to blossom. There is investment in academies, there is talent at youth level, it simply is not making it to first team level – a point illustrated by Brentford’s German manager Uwe Rösler:
“The development system is better there. In England we develop good youngsters, but what happens is they get lost, too many of them, at 18 and 19. That is where you need stronger regulations.
“You need to work out how to give younger players a chance to develop. And go only for the top, top foreign players rather than the average foreigner who blocks the young players coming through.”
It is a sad situation that looks unlikely to change with the success of the Premier League completely independent from that of the English national side. If progress is to be made, an agreement must be reached between the Premier League and the FA. The Football Association has to convince the clubs to allow them to follow Germany’s lead and play a larger role in the early development of English players. A system like the one in place in Germany can be mutually beneficial as German coaches at the national talent centres also act as scouts for local talent, developing young players technical abilities regardless of physical attributes and independent of whether or not the player is affiliated to a club already. Increased FA involvement in a similar style would lead to less young talent slipping through the net.
Though the Premier League’s financial giants would have less to gain from a system similar to that in Germany, the opposite could well be true for the rest of the league’s teams. Sides on smaller budgets, such as Everton for instance, would surely benefit from a national training scheme run by the Football Association working toward the production of technically adept young players. Everton has a good record of promoting from their own youth sides, but surely the strain of competing against the far-reaching scouting networks of the Premier League’s giants would be reduced if the club agreed to work in conjunction with the FA and their national training scheme.
Under the current system, there seems little hope for an increase in number of young English talent breaking through to the Premier League, but what Saturday’s Champions League final demonstrates is that a focus on bringing through young players can provide success, alongside a sense of homegrown pride and a connection to a club’s fan base. The Premier League is unlikely to change at the top-level and no-one will ever begrudge the recruitment of the very best, but lower down the league, successful youth development seems like the key to a fruitful future.
One major conclusion that the Football Association need to draw from the German setup is the development of high quality coaches. The new St. George’s Park academy in Burton needs to play a significant part if England is to catch up to the incredible depth of Germany’s coaching resources. According to UEFA, Germany has 28,400 coaches with the B licence, 5,500 with the A licence and 1,070 with the Pro licence, the highest qualification. Compare this to the current figures in England (1,759 B licence, 895 A licence and 115 Pro licence), and there is little wonder as to why England has fallen behind technically. As Dan Ashworth said recently, “there will be no quick fix for English football,” but the development of high quality home grown coaches is surely the first step.
It remains to be seen whether the all-round success Germany is currently experiencing can be sustained, or whether this is simply their very own ‘Golden Generation’. What is certain is that German football is currently in rude health with much to be learnt from their philosophies and methodologies.
