Germany Thriving under Julian Nagelsmann, Achieving ‘Remarkable Success’ at Euro 2024: Karl-Heinz Riedle

Singapore – Germany's performance has been lackluster since their World Cup win in 2014, but former Die Mannschaft forward Karl-Heinz Riedle is optimistic about the team's future under coach Julian Nagelsmann. Riedle believes that the world No. 13 team is on the path to improvement.

Since their World Cup triumph a decade ago, the Germans have crashed out in the group stage of the past two editions.

Despite a quarter-final exit at Euro 2024 on home soil, Riedle called their campaign “a great success” and has backed Nagelsmann, 37, to bring Germany back to their glory days.

In an interview with The Straits Times on Oct 9, Riedle said: “We had massive problems with the national team, we couldn’t get results and we’ve been out of the tournaments quite early. It was not what we expected from German football but now, with the Euros, it changed a lot.

“When Nagelsmann came in, he put the right screws in. From this point, the team was performing very well and the Euros for Germany was a great success.”

Riedle, 59, is in the Republic as part of celebrations for the 10-year anniversary of Borussia Dortmund’s Singapore office. He played for the Bundesliga team from 1993 to 1997, scoring 24 goals in 87 appearances, including a double in their 3-1 Champions League final win over Juventus in his last season with them.

The 1990 World Cup winner, who earned 42 caps for Germany, is optimistic about Die Mannschaft’s future despite the retirement of stalwarts Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Toni Kroos after Euro 2024.

Riedle named attackers Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala as players Germany can rely on. The 21-year-olds were both in the Nations League squad to face Bosnia and Herzegovina and Netherlands this week before Musiala pulled out due to injury.

“We have incredibly good players individually so now they have to grow,” said Riedle. “It takes a little bit (of time), but Nagelsmann is on a really good way to bring back Germany to the point where we should be.”

He also believes Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin, who took over after Edin Terzic stepped down in June, could do a “very good” job.

After 2½ years in charge of the team, Terzic resigned after leading Dortmund to their first Champions League final in over a decade, which they lost 2-0 to Real Madrid.

During his tenure, they also came close to the 2022-23 Bundesliga title, with the battle going down to the final day.

While former German international Dietmar Hamann has questioned the decision to part ways with Terzic, Riedle felt it was beyond the club’s control.

He said: “You never know. It was his decision, I think he was burnt out a little bit after all the stress he had in the past with everything. Now in Sahin, we have a really young, very motivated coach and he could also do a very good job for Dortmund.

“It’s a question of time that everything runs in the right direction. Sahin is a very young coach, so he needs some time to set up all of this that’s needed to perform very good in the Bundesliga.”