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Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World
‘Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win’ Gary Lineker Packed with exclusive interviews with key protagonists, Raphael Honigstein’s book lifts the lid on the secrets of German football’s success.13th July 2014, World Cup Final, the last ten minutes of extra time. Germany forward Mario Götze, receiving a floated pass from his international teammate André Schürrle, jumps slightly to meet the ball and cushion it with his chest. Landing on his left foot, he takes a step with his right, swivels, and in one fluid motion, without the ball touching the ground, volleys it past the onrushing Argentine goalkeeper into the far corner of the net. The goal wins Germany the World Cup for the first time in almost twenty-five years. In Das Reboot, journalist and television pundit Raphael Honigstein charts the return of German football - how did German football transform itself from its efficient, but unappealing and defensively minded traditions to the free-flowing, attacking football that was on display during the last World Cup? The answer takes him from California to Stuttgart, from Munich to the Maracaná, via Dortmund and Durban. ‘German football boasts not only the World Cup, but superb writers…A fine account of how Germany reclaimed hegemony’ Guardian
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 3, 2015
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About the author
Raphael Honigstein
22 books65 followersRaphael Honigstein is a German journalist and author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
September 21, 2020
I bought Das Reboot an year and a half removed from when I'd sat in my hostel common room watching on disbelievingly as Germany tore Brazil apart, smashing them 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup semi final. It seemed incredible, surreal but at the same time, wrong. That was because just prior to the World Cup, I'd read Futebol by Alex Bellos which told me how woven into the Brazilian psyche and culture football was. So, to see them shredded with clinical precision felt like a murder.
I put off reading Das Reboot for almost 4 years because I was sceptical as to how much more of something that you've followed live through multiple tournaments a book can teach you. Turns out- quite a lot. Honigstein goes into the groundwork, the planning, the vision and the methods which reached their zenith in Belo Horizonte and got the ultimate validation in the Maracana with Germany beating Argentina in the final. The book is laced with numerous interviews, profiles, tactics, anecdotes etc and is a breezy read for anyone wanting to know more about the well oiled machine that is Die Mannschaft across a spectra of activities. Most of the prominent faces with the apparatus make their appearances including Klinsmann, Low, Mertesacker, Kroos, Muller, Klopp, Rangnick and right down to Hansi Flick.
Which brings me to why I picked up the book some 4 years later. And that's because I witnessed another mauling with unnerving accuracy- that of Bayern running Barcelona ragged and beating them 8-2. Seeing Bayern put the team that's been the vanguard of beautiful football and with (imho) the greatest footballer of all time in their ranks to the sword felt sacrilegious too. Having read the book, I can see how Flick has built on decades of work by the German football system and leading it to new exciting pastures. I finished the book in time to watch Bayern take on PSG in about 24 hours- armed with the knowledge that like life, football is also about getting better each day, minimising uncertainty and raging against vagaries and also with the assurance that win or lose, they will be back, better the day after than they are tomorrow.
In short, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone intrigued by the constant in the footballing world that is the German football team and also anyone wanting to know more about the level of planning, detail and infrastructural and grassroots development that takes place in the top echelons of the sport.
I put off reading Das Reboot for almost 4 years because I was sceptical as to how much more of something that you've followed live through multiple tournaments a book can teach you. Turns out- quite a lot. Honigstein goes into the groundwork, the planning, the vision and the methods which reached their zenith in Belo Horizonte and got the ultimate validation in the Maracana with Germany beating Argentina in the final. The book is laced with numerous interviews, profiles, tactics, anecdotes etc and is a breezy read for anyone wanting to know more about the well oiled machine that is Die Mannschaft across a spectra of activities. Most of the prominent faces with the apparatus make their appearances including Klinsmann, Low, Mertesacker, Kroos, Muller, Klopp, Rangnick and right down to Hansi Flick.
Which brings me to why I picked up the book some 4 years later. And that's because I witnessed another mauling with unnerving accuracy- that of Bayern running Barcelona ragged and beating them 8-2. Seeing Bayern put the team that's been the vanguard of beautiful football and with (imho) the greatest footballer of all time in their ranks to the sword felt sacrilegious too. Having read the book, I can see how Flick has built on decades of work by the German football system and leading it to new exciting pastures. I finished the book in time to watch Bayern take on PSG in about 24 hours- armed with the knowledge that like life, football is also about getting better each day, minimising uncertainty and raging against vagaries and also with the assurance that win or lose, they will be back, better the day after than they are tomorrow.
In short, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone intrigued by the constant in the footballing world that is the German football team and also anyone wanting to know more about the level of planning, detail and infrastructural and grassroots development that takes place in the top echelons of the sport.
January 2, 2016
In the days leading up to the 2014 World Cup I made a bold prediction: Germany was going to win. Friends – friends who knew way more than me about international soccer – scoffed. There was no way Germany was going to win. The World Cup was in Brazil, where soccer is bigger than Jesus, and Argentina had the soccer messiah, Lionel Messi. The Cup, they told me, was going back to South America.
A month later, I was too shocked at being right to bother gloating. Especially since I knew nothing about the German team, coach, players, or tactics. All I knew was that they had come very close to the final in 2006 and 2010. I thought that it was their turn – that the football gods were going to be on their side. After reading Raphael Honigstein’s Das Reboot, though, it becomes apparent that divine intervention had nothing to do with it -- the German win in Brazil was a man-made football revoluation.
Honigstein, primarily a writer for the Guardian and ESPN, weaves a fascinating tale. At the heart of this short book is the 2014 German national team’s path to glory in Brazil. Surrounding that team’s story is the saga of German football in the last 20 years.
Beginning with the team’s pre-Brazil training, the author breaks the story into two parts: the 2014 World Cup campaign and the who, what, when, where, why of how everything changed. The World Cup story is told chronologically with each game having its own chapter. The backstory, told out of order, introduces the men who implemented the changes.
Honigstein uses his reporting skills to keep both storylines as focused as possible, making the book a relatively quick read. Previous knowledge of Bundesliga and German soccer isn’t needed either. He creates brief, vivid portraits of each main player, making them easy to track, while he provides just the right amount of backstory about the German national team, certain Bundesliga clubs, and the German youth development system so outsiders can understand the impact the changes made.
It’s impossible to spoil the World Cup chapters; everyone knows that Germany won. However, they provide a peek behind the curtain to show how difficult the team’s journey was. It’s refreshing to learn how players truly felt during and after each match – instead of the lip service usually given in post match interviews – and it’s interesting to about the plays and tactics connected to the team’s success.
The backstory, however, is where a reader will find more suspense since it wasn’t easy for the German system to change. And anyone who follows either the US Men’s National Team or the New York Red Bulls will want to pay special attention to these chapters. Despite the success of West Germany/Germany from 1974 to 1990, German coaching and tactical manuals went unchanged. As relayed in the chapter on Ralf Rangnick and Helmut Gross, the architects of the German high press, many saw their study of tactics and emphasis on training as too intellectual:
That was not the German (football) way. Its heroes were doers, not thinkers; men who could take leave of their critical faculties to run, shoot and score as if on autopilot, plugged into one big determination to succeed that existed independently of themselves.
One of the people who makes the struggle between old and new tactical thinking so familiar is Jurgen Klinsman. Everything about his short tenure as the German national team manager is familiar to those who follow the USMNT: the emphasis on player fitness, playing players out of position, punishing players by removing them from rosters, flying in from California just before matches and then leaving for California as soon as the match is over. Honigstein never makes an overt judgment about Klinsman or his time as Germany’s manager; he wisely allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about him. But what the book does illustrate is that Klinsman was less an architect of system change, and more of a foreman who oversaw part of the construction. The similarities of his time managing both teams leads the reader to wonder if he can make a difference time with the US program or if other leaders are needed to make substantial changes.
Das Reboot is strongest when Honigstein goes into detail about those other leaders for the German system. He devotes whole chapters to Rangnick and Gross developing the high press, Dietrich Weise creating the blueprint for the new German youth development, and the technology being used to develop player response time, study gameplay, and improve player connections. A personal favorite of the tech being used is the Footbonaut. Invented by Christian Guttler, it’s a real-life FIFA training exercise that, if it’s not being used by MLS clubs and academies, needs to be used immediately since Mario Gotze’s game-winning goal in the World Cup final was a result of his training in the Footbonaut.
For the American football fan the book creates several questions: Can we make similar youth development changes so more US children can receive the right kind of development? Where should the development focus – academies or high schools/colleges? How long will we need to wait for a new development system? And how long will it take for the players from that system to produce national team results?
Hopefully an American sequel can be written in ten or fifteen years and it’ll have its own World Cup happy ending.
A month later, I was too shocked at being right to bother gloating. Especially since I knew nothing about the German team, coach, players, or tactics. All I knew was that they had come very close to the final in 2006 and 2010. I thought that it was their turn – that the football gods were going to be on their side. After reading Raphael Honigstein’s Das Reboot, though, it becomes apparent that divine intervention had nothing to do with it -- the German win in Brazil was a man-made football revoluation.
Honigstein, primarily a writer for the Guardian and ESPN, weaves a fascinating tale. At the heart of this short book is the 2014 German national team’s path to glory in Brazil. Surrounding that team’s story is the saga of German football in the last 20 years.
Beginning with the team’s pre-Brazil training, the author breaks the story into two parts: the 2014 World Cup campaign and the who, what, when, where, why of how everything changed. The World Cup story is told chronologically with each game having its own chapter. The backstory, told out of order, introduces the men who implemented the changes.
Honigstein uses his reporting skills to keep both storylines as focused as possible, making the book a relatively quick read. Previous knowledge of Bundesliga and German soccer isn’t needed either. He creates brief, vivid portraits of each main player, making them easy to track, while he provides just the right amount of backstory about the German national team, certain Bundesliga clubs, and the German youth development system so outsiders can understand the impact the changes made.
It’s impossible to spoil the World Cup chapters; everyone knows that Germany won. However, they provide a peek behind the curtain to show how difficult the team’s journey was. It’s refreshing to learn how players truly felt during and after each match – instead of the lip service usually given in post match interviews – and it’s interesting to about the plays and tactics connected to the team’s success.
The backstory, however, is where a reader will find more suspense since it wasn’t easy for the German system to change. And anyone who follows either the US Men’s National Team or the New York Red Bulls will want to pay special attention to these chapters. Despite the success of West Germany/Germany from 1974 to 1990, German coaching and tactical manuals went unchanged. As relayed in the chapter on Ralf Rangnick and Helmut Gross, the architects of the German high press, many saw their study of tactics and emphasis on training as too intellectual:
That was not the German (football) way. Its heroes were doers, not thinkers; men who could take leave of their critical faculties to run, shoot and score as if on autopilot, plugged into one big determination to succeed that existed independently of themselves.
One of the people who makes the struggle between old and new tactical thinking so familiar is Jurgen Klinsman. Everything about his short tenure as the German national team manager is familiar to those who follow the USMNT: the emphasis on player fitness, playing players out of position, punishing players by removing them from rosters, flying in from California just before matches and then leaving for California as soon as the match is over. Honigstein never makes an overt judgment about Klinsman or his time as Germany’s manager; he wisely allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about him. But what the book does illustrate is that Klinsman was less an architect of system change, and more of a foreman who oversaw part of the construction. The similarities of his time managing both teams leads the reader to wonder if he can make a difference time with the US program or if other leaders are needed to make substantial changes.
Das Reboot is strongest when Honigstein goes into detail about those other leaders for the German system. He devotes whole chapters to Rangnick and Gross developing the high press, Dietrich Weise creating the blueprint for the new German youth development, and the technology being used to develop player response time, study gameplay, and improve player connections. A personal favorite of the tech being used is the Footbonaut. Invented by Christian Guttler, it’s a real-life FIFA training exercise that, if it’s not being used by MLS clubs and academies, needs to be used immediately since Mario Gotze’s game-winning goal in the World Cup final was a result of his training in the Footbonaut.
For the American football fan the book creates several questions: Can we make similar youth development changes so more US children can receive the right kind of development? Where should the development focus – academies or high schools/colleges? How long will we need to wait for a new development system? And how long will it take for the players from that system to produce national team results?
Hopefully an American sequel can be written in ten or fifteen years and it’ll have its own World Cup happy ending.
February 22, 2018
In Das Reboot Honigstein meticulously chronicles Germany's 10 year rebuild of it's soccer program culminating in their World Cup win in 2014. The best parts of this book are the sections dealing with the games themselves and the behind-the-scenes stuff dealing with the atmosphere surrounding the players. However the reason why this book will probably remain relevant for many years to come is the in-depth interviews with Germany's Youth coaches, and the deep discussion of Germany's Soccer philosophy and how it had to change in order for them to win again. The entire blueprint is here if you take the time to decipher it. I'm sure International coaches will be studying Germany's plan for years to come.
September 6, 2015
Is this book a thunderbastard? That's the question you want answered when reading football books. Des Reboot (2015) by Raphael Honigstein looks at the rejuvenation of the German National team following poor performances in 1998 through to 2004. Honigstein is football journalist who writes for The Guardian and appears on the Football Weekly podcast and provides expertise on the Bundesliga and the German National team.
The book interleaves the rejuvenation of the German National team and the German training system with the tale of Germany's 2014 World Cup win. The technique is like that of a Michael Lewis book where a narrative of a person is worked in with a description of the events around them. It works well.
After the German World Cup win of 1990 the future looked bright for German football, as well as winning the World Cup the incorporation of East Germany meant that the pool of players would be even bigger and German teams even stronger. But it wasn't to be. Despite winning the 1996 Euro's the German National team was aging and falling behind other countries like France that had a better academy system.
The development of the youth system by Dietrich Weise in the early 1980s and the updating of the system after France 1998 is described. The arrival of Jürgen Klinsmann and the way that he and his team including Joachim Löw greatly improved the professionalism of the national team by importing techniques from the US and from other sports is really well described.
As well as the story of the World Cup in 2014 the way that the 2006 World Cup and the 2010 World Cup went is also described with interviews with Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrichs. The reflections on these tournaments provides insight into how the new German team has been formed and what changes were made for 2014.
The descriptions of each game of the 2014 World Cup are very well done with tactical and personnel changes and their impacts carefully outlined. The description of the semi-final is perhaps a slight dip for the book while the final's description is a highlight.
The book is a thunderbastard of a read. It's worth reading for anyone looking for a description of how national systems can change and improve football and for anyone who wants to understand how Germany went from a declining power to a World Cup winner in 16 years.
The book interleaves the rejuvenation of the German National team and the German training system with the tale of Germany's 2014 World Cup win. The technique is like that of a Michael Lewis book where a narrative of a person is worked in with a description of the events around them. It works well.
After the German World Cup win of 1990 the future looked bright for German football, as well as winning the World Cup the incorporation of East Germany meant that the pool of players would be even bigger and German teams even stronger. But it wasn't to be. Despite winning the 1996 Euro's the German National team was aging and falling behind other countries like France that had a better academy system.
The development of the youth system by Dietrich Weise in the early 1980s and the updating of the system after France 1998 is described. The arrival of Jürgen Klinsmann and the way that he and his team including Joachim Löw greatly improved the professionalism of the national team by importing techniques from the US and from other sports is really well described.
As well as the story of the World Cup in 2014 the way that the 2006 World Cup and the 2010 World Cup went is also described with interviews with Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrichs. The reflections on these tournaments provides insight into how the new German team has been formed and what changes were made for 2014.
The descriptions of each game of the 2014 World Cup are very well done with tactical and personnel changes and their impacts carefully outlined. The description of the semi-final is perhaps a slight dip for the book while the final's description is a highlight.
The book is a thunderbastard of a read. It's worth reading for anyone looking for a description of how national systems can change and improve football and for anyone who wants to understand how Germany went from a declining power to a World Cup winner in 16 years.
September 20, 2024
Honigstein does a good job here - it'd be wrong for me to resort to the usual stereotypes of Germany in praising the efficiency and confidence of the writing, though these were merits in addition to the wit and approachability of this book. The author aims to tell the story of how, post the disasters at the 2000 and 2004 European Championships, German football embraced a number of new tactical, technical, philosophical and cultural changes, culminating in the nation's 2014 World Cup win.
It's entertaining, both serving as a record of that victorious tournament and also the journey that the national game took to get there. It was thought provoking in the sense that I wondered how a book on English football would work about the same sort of renaissance (albeit that England's men haven't won anything for six decades) and I felt Honigstein clearly knew his stuff and had sought some excellent contributors.
I couldn't however escape the fact that since this was published in 2015 Germany made the Euro semi-finals in 2016 then suffered embarrassing group stage exits at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and didn't progress very far in the 2020 and 2024 Euros.. which sorta puts the book unfortunately in a different light in terms of 'successful reinvention' (I say, as an Englishman aware of my team also having won nothing).
It's entertaining, both serving as a record of that victorious tournament and also the journey that the national game took to get there. It was thought provoking in the sense that I wondered how a book on English football would work about the same sort of renaissance (albeit that England's men haven't won anything for six decades) and I felt Honigstein clearly knew his stuff and had sought some excellent contributors.
I couldn't however escape the fact that since this was published in 2015 Germany made the Euro semi-finals in 2016 then suffered embarrassing group stage exits at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and didn't progress very far in the 2020 and 2024 Euros.. which sorta puts the book unfortunately in a different light in terms of 'successful reinvention' (I say, as an Englishman aware of my team also having won nothing).
August 8, 2018
The Germans have a training machine, the
Footbonaut
, that resembles four batting machines positioned in the middle of every side of a small field. With one second warning, balls are emitted from the machines, and players have to kick them into random quadrants of the field that light up green. The sole goal that decided the 2014 World Cup final final came in overtime, from 22 year old Mario Götze. It was a Footbonaut goal.
June 29, 2017
"You can go through the whole squad and find that almost everybody was struggling with something in Brazil. . . . Individually, there were a million reasons why we wouldn't succeed. But, collectively, we pulled together and helped each other out."
Here's the thing: I don't watch the Bundesliga, and I'm new to rest-of-the-world football. I hoped that this book would have helped me understand the league.
The story of German football is inspiring: players from different leagues and rival teams banded together for the sake of their nation. German football, indeed, reinvented itself for the benefit of the nation. The national team took advantage of cultural changes in order to benefit the nation. (Immigrants, we get the job done.) The coaches worked with the educators to ensure that the players received the best of both athletics and education without slighting either.
I had frequent fantasies about holidays in Munich.
And Honigstein jabbed Cristiano Ronaldo whenever he got the chance.
For all that I remember that stunning 2014 World Cup, I still didn't understand enough about German football to glean much from what Honigstein offered. I had trouble with the shifts in time from chapter-to-chapter. One chapter was about the 2014 World Cup, the next chapter was about the 2012 Euros, and the next chapter was about a coach I had no prior knowledge about whatsoever (and I still am unable to name him). I found myself dozing off when I was confused.
But maybe I'll surmount FOX's terrible layout and watch some Bundesliga matches now.
November 20, 2017
Germany went from a declining power in football to a World Cup winner in 16 years. This book shows how that happened. This was an absolute joy to read, but that's coming from a huge DFB fan who has followed them all those years; it was nostalgic and fun to remember all the moments Honigstein refers to as he details the reinvention of German football.
January 10, 2022
#RangnickIn
March 17, 2025
finished 17/03/25 can't go without reading a textbook on my interests yupppp
March 28, 2021
I really like this book. I think deep down I'm a teutonophile. I'm not even sure if that's a word but while having a natural disposition or fascination with the detail isn't my go to strength there is something about the organization and logical prowess of the Teutonic race that's always impressed me. And this certainly came out in this book. There were many insightful sections in the book but perhaps one of the pivotal moments which was paradigm shifting for me from a macro football organizational sense was what happened in the aftermath of some of the defeats that Germany had suffered in the 1998 World Cup finals and the European Championship two years later in 2000. The book ends with a glorious description of what happened in the 2014 World Cup final when Germany beat Argentina one nil but it also described in bewildering detail what happened in that surreal football match in the semi final ,which if anybody was there to watch I'm pretty sure they will never forget, the way Germany deconstructed Brazil in the semifinal in Brazil to win by about seven goals to one if I think I remember correctly. It was embarrassing to watch. The Germans even have a word for this when you feel shame at other people's shame: it's something like fremsdchame. but if you zoom back to the deconstruction that Germany itself felt they were going through and the struggles the national team was facing in the late 90s and the early noughties a huge investment and a major shift that German football made was to set up a series of regional academies, which if my understanding is correct, sat outside the traditional Academy system that teams like Bayern Munich or Stuttgart or Borussia Dortmund would have had. Germany set up approximately 150 regional centers which allowed youngsters from around the age of 11 and 12 and onwards to have access to one hour a week of “elite” football training coached by ex professional footballers. They set this up all over Germany and this number increased to approximately 350 once they saw that the original model was very successful. This is something the FA in England desperately needs to create in my humble opinion. The German model wanted to establish a principle where every child with a certain level of talent in football should NOT have to travel more than 25 KM in order to get to one of these elite football centers. Anyway this is mentioned in a little bit more in some of the best bits that have highlighted below:
In the spring of 1998: it wasn't enough to have a few coaches at the regional federations. And the fathers who are coaching youngsters in their spare time in many clubs didn't have any real qualifications either. That's not sufficient. Dad can't be the solution. So here's the fundamental change that the German FA made. 3.2 million deutschmarks which is approximately €1.6 million was made available to set up 121 regional centers that were called “stutzpunkte” that would provide 2 hours of individual, technical coaching for 13 to 17 year olds once a week. In addition up to 10,000 boys under 12 would receive lessons by the landesverbande. the total cost came to 5.2 million deutschmarks per year. Key people from the German FA crisscrossed the whole of Germany for an entire year looking for suitable locations for their new network. They saw hundreds of clubs in the most remote, provincial spots imaginable. They sweet talked to village councils into making their pitches and sports halls available, they hired dozens of former professionals to work as coaches, they provided equipment and even petrol money to enable parents to drive their children to these centers. Growing up far away from any footballing hotspots should no longer be a bar to enjoying a first class football education for any German youngster. Everyone was supposed to have access to a regional center within 25 kilometres of his home. The stutzpunkt education for 11 and 12 year olds was eventually taken out of the hands of the federale associations and centralized: the national network was increased to 366 locations. 600,000 talents could now be seen at least once by 1300 FA coaches each year in Germany. The annual budget was raised to €14 million. A million more or less , suddenly it wasn't a problem anymore. Youth development must be the focal point of our work.
He regarded team building as a psychological puzzle. He compared the intricacies of squad composition with putting together a Formula One racing engine. Buying Munich are a sensitive construction, like a Ferrari motor, he said, every detail has to be right.
The effect of the Bosman ruling, a European Court of justice case that enabled free movement of footballers within the European Union in 1995, had narrowed the qualitative gap between national teams. Smaller nations could now muster starting 11s made up of players from Europes top leagues. Lessons learned from the training regimes at elite clubs were filtering through to the rest of the continent: technically, physically and tactically the underdogs were no longer so far behind the curve. Sunny: this is the same with the Internet and the amount of football shown on there. Technically the gap is decreasing so how can you create an advantage? Fitness? Psychology?
But in football as in life the most powerful lies are the ones you tell yourselves.
Oliver Kahn was the world's best at making goal line saves to prevent defeats, but his rise to the level of national hero mirrored the demise of Germany as an attacking force. Jurgen klinsman wanted the center of gravity to shift from the last line of defense to the final third in the opposition half.
Germany was a doer country. But we had stopped playing doer football. Personality development became a fifth priority along with the four basic coaching pillars of technique, tactics, physical and mental conditioning. We tried to activate the players brains through computer courses, language courses, and other things: to get them to say: I'm in the driving seat here.
But when your rival start training eight times a week to your 5, when they regenerate better, eat better, sleep more, do a lot of the things off the pitch better than you, then you will see a difference over the course of a few years.
There are many players who have fantastic footballing ability but aren't mature enough to find their way inside a team structure.
Khedira employed a business consultancy firm to teach him Spanish using hypnosis, in order to arrive fully prepared at his new club Real Madrid, only to find that most players were speaking English on the pitch. A key moment in his career was turning up late for the team bus as a teenager and being left stranded. He's been punctual ever since, a fully paid up defender of the swabian were thetic. You'll never get anywhere beyond a certain level as a professional athlete if you're sloppy he said. When a serious knee injury at 18 threatened his career, he read books about leaders in business and politics in order to find the secret of inner strength. Successful people have similar strategies. Success always starts in the head.
I need that type of instruction from club football. In preseason, coaches would bark at you, but after awhile, bad habits would always creep back into the game and eventually they just got tired of correcting you an let it go. With Germany though, the training games would be stopped every single time someone played a long ball for example. Every single time. There were clear instructions to build from the back, through the two centre backs and midfield and then to move out as a team.
They showed us the stats: teams were most acceptable straight after losing the ball. We concentrated on those moments of transition. It was imperative that we all moved up as a unit, it was just as important as all of us coming back to defend. Those drills were being repeated again and again. That tenacity was unique. There was a plan in place and it was being followed independent of results. After matches we would analyze collective and individual mistakes in great detail. But the plan never changed. Club football as I experienced it was very different. You didn't follow some overriding strategy. You're always trying to resolve problems that are turned up a couple of days before. We needed to be very fit to play such a demanding up and down game. We knew that acceleration comes from the biggest and strongest muscles : the glutes.
The biggest most decisive effect resulted from the increase of full-time professional youth coaches. In 2000 we had about 100 FA coaches in clubs combined. Today there are 400 : 4000 licensed coaches who do nothing else but to think about coaching youngsters football every single day. We provide them with platforms for regular meetings, for the exchange of ideas. As they get better and improve so does their training and the players they develop.
The idea that tactics can help you hide your flaws and bring out your strengths.
At some Bundesliga clubs kersting estimates as many as 85% of the Academy students are doing their A -levels. It used to be completely the other way around. You'd maybe have 15% of the A- level students in the youth teams in Germany. German football has it seems become thoroughly middle class and intellectual. There are a few possible explanations for this trend and none of them is scientifically proven yet. It could be that high intellectual performance is needed to make it as a footballer today. Or if you want to put it more generally, kids who can sacrifice and organize themselves in their time well tend to thrive. If they can do that on the pitch then they can do it at school and vice versa. You need to set yourself targets and prioritize them then make sure you achieve them. Youth football is like an extended version of the Stanford marshmallow experiment. A giant exercise in delayed gratification. At Stanford children were given a marshmallow and rewarded for not eating it by receiving a second one a few minutes later. Those who were able to defer instant pleasure were later found to have higher incomes and were less likely to develop addictions. In short they were more successful.
It's still the same as it was when I played. Much hyped 15 year olds somehow fall by the wayside. Others come out of nowhere from smaller clubs and surprise everyone late in the game. It could be that they had more responsibility as the star of their team, taking all the freekicks, dictating the game, as opposed to earlier developers who play with teammates of similar quality and don't stand out as much.
The capacity to block out everything probably remains one of the German professional's greatest strengths.
But switching from man marking to an effective zonal system took 150 dedicated practice Wolfgang Frank estimated. More established professionals might have bristled at a training regime that had their players standing out in the cold for hours on end, walking around slowly in Unison in intricate patterns between poles stuck in the ground. Juergen Klopp: in Germany training was supposed to be fun or action: shooting, crosses, pig in the middle, rondos. By contrast the amount of effort that had to go into Frank’s system was enormous. But we thought: if rude gullet and Marco van basten had to learn that at Milan then we could put up with it as well.
The repetitive practice of choreographed offensive moves had been a staple fare for hockey for many years. One of hoffenheim's exercises forced players to pass the ball through a narrow gap in the middle of the pitch: sideways or back passes were forbidden: it teaches you to adopt an extremely vertical approach through channels and zones.
I've grown up with the attitude that we must win every game at Bayern Munich. Pressure is an everyday thing for me. Munich players are winners by definition: they don't get to play there otherwise. And they're very much aware of it. That breeds self belief which in turn leads to more wins and is underscored by a very Bavarian type of confidence that outsiders sometimes mistake for arrogance.
Football is a naturally superstitious. They tend to believe in the power of routine, in repetitiveness. It's how they've lived their entire professional lives. You do the things that work and discard those that don't.
In the spring of 1998: it wasn't enough to have a few coaches at the regional federations. And the fathers who are coaching youngsters in their spare time in many clubs didn't have any real qualifications either. That's not sufficient. Dad can't be the solution. So here's the fundamental change that the German FA made. 3.2 million deutschmarks which is approximately €1.6 million was made available to set up 121 regional centers that were called “stutzpunkte” that would provide 2 hours of individual, technical coaching for 13 to 17 year olds once a week. In addition up to 10,000 boys under 12 would receive lessons by the landesverbande. the total cost came to 5.2 million deutschmarks per year. Key people from the German FA crisscrossed the whole of Germany for an entire year looking for suitable locations for their new network. They saw hundreds of clubs in the most remote, provincial spots imaginable. They sweet talked to village councils into making their pitches and sports halls available, they hired dozens of former professionals to work as coaches, they provided equipment and even petrol money to enable parents to drive their children to these centers. Growing up far away from any footballing hotspots should no longer be a bar to enjoying a first class football education for any German youngster. Everyone was supposed to have access to a regional center within 25 kilometres of his home. The stutzpunkt education for 11 and 12 year olds was eventually taken out of the hands of the federale associations and centralized: the national network was increased to 366 locations. 600,000 talents could now be seen at least once by 1300 FA coaches each year in Germany. The annual budget was raised to €14 million. A million more or less , suddenly it wasn't a problem anymore. Youth development must be the focal point of our work.
He regarded team building as a psychological puzzle. He compared the intricacies of squad composition with putting together a Formula One racing engine. Buying Munich are a sensitive construction, like a Ferrari motor, he said, every detail has to be right.
The effect of the Bosman ruling, a European Court of justice case that enabled free movement of footballers within the European Union in 1995, had narrowed the qualitative gap between national teams. Smaller nations could now muster starting 11s made up of players from Europes top leagues. Lessons learned from the training regimes at elite clubs were filtering through to the rest of the continent: technically, physically and tactically the underdogs were no longer so far behind the curve. Sunny: this is the same with the Internet and the amount of football shown on there. Technically the gap is decreasing so how can you create an advantage? Fitness? Psychology?
But in football as in life the most powerful lies are the ones you tell yourselves.
Oliver Kahn was the world's best at making goal line saves to prevent defeats, but his rise to the level of national hero mirrored the demise of Germany as an attacking force. Jurgen klinsman wanted the center of gravity to shift from the last line of defense to the final third in the opposition half.
Germany was a doer country. But we had stopped playing doer football. Personality development became a fifth priority along with the four basic coaching pillars of technique, tactics, physical and mental conditioning. We tried to activate the players brains through computer courses, language courses, and other things: to get them to say: I'm in the driving seat here.
But when your rival start training eight times a week to your 5, when they regenerate better, eat better, sleep more, do a lot of the things off the pitch better than you, then you will see a difference over the course of a few years.
There are many players who have fantastic footballing ability but aren't mature enough to find their way inside a team structure.
Khedira employed a business consultancy firm to teach him Spanish using hypnosis, in order to arrive fully prepared at his new club Real Madrid, only to find that most players were speaking English on the pitch. A key moment in his career was turning up late for the team bus as a teenager and being left stranded. He's been punctual ever since, a fully paid up defender of the swabian were thetic. You'll never get anywhere beyond a certain level as a professional athlete if you're sloppy he said. When a serious knee injury at 18 threatened his career, he read books about leaders in business and politics in order to find the secret of inner strength. Successful people have similar strategies. Success always starts in the head.
I need that type of instruction from club football. In preseason, coaches would bark at you, but after awhile, bad habits would always creep back into the game and eventually they just got tired of correcting you an let it go. With Germany though, the training games would be stopped every single time someone played a long ball for example. Every single time. There were clear instructions to build from the back, through the two centre backs and midfield and then to move out as a team.
They showed us the stats: teams were most acceptable straight after losing the ball. We concentrated on those moments of transition. It was imperative that we all moved up as a unit, it was just as important as all of us coming back to defend. Those drills were being repeated again and again. That tenacity was unique. There was a plan in place and it was being followed independent of results. After matches we would analyze collective and individual mistakes in great detail. But the plan never changed. Club football as I experienced it was very different. You didn't follow some overriding strategy. You're always trying to resolve problems that are turned up a couple of days before. We needed to be very fit to play such a demanding up and down game. We knew that acceleration comes from the biggest and strongest muscles : the glutes.
The biggest most decisive effect resulted from the increase of full-time professional youth coaches. In 2000 we had about 100 FA coaches in clubs combined. Today there are 400 : 4000 licensed coaches who do nothing else but to think about coaching youngsters football every single day. We provide them with platforms for regular meetings, for the exchange of ideas. As they get better and improve so does their training and the players they develop.
The idea that tactics can help you hide your flaws and bring out your strengths.
At some Bundesliga clubs kersting estimates as many as 85% of the Academy students are doing their A -levels. It used to be completely the other way around. You'd maybe have 15% of the A- level students in the youth teams in Germany. German football has it seems become thoroughly middle class and intellectual. There are a few possible explanations for this trend and none of them is scientifically proven yet. It could be that high intellectual performance is needed to make it as a footballer today. Or if you want to put it more generally, kids who can sacrifice and organize themselves in their time well tend to thrive. If they can do that on the pitch then they can do it at school and vice versa. You need to set yourself targets and prioritize them then make sure you achieve them. Youth football is like an extended version of the Stanford marshmallow experiment. A giant exercise in delayed gratification. At Stanford children were given a marshmallow and rewarded for not eating it by receiving a second one a few minutes later. Those who were able to defer instant pleasure were later found to have higher incomes and were less likely to develop addictions. In short they were more successful.
It's still the same as it was when I played. Much hyped 15 year olds somehow fall by the wayside. Others come out of nowhere from smaller clubs and surprise everyone late in the game. It could be that they had more responsibility as the star of their team, taking all the freekicks, dictating the game, as opposed to earlier developers who play with teammates of similar quality and don't stand out as much.
The capacity to block out everything probably remains one of the German professional's greatest strengths.
But switching from man marking to an effective zonal system took 150 dedicated practice Wolfgang Frank estimated. More established professionals might have bristled at a training regime that had their players standing out in the cold for hours on end, walking around slowly in Unison in intricate patterns between poles stuck in the ground. Juergen Klopp: in Germany training was supposed to be fun or action: shooting, crosses, pig in the middle, rondos. By contrast the amount of effort that had to go into Frank’s system was enormous. But we thought: if rude gullet and Marco van basten had to learn that at Milan then we could put up with it as well.
The repetitive practice of choreographed offensive moves had been a staple fare for hockey for many years. One of hoffenheim's exercises forced players to pass the ball through a narrow gap in the middle of the pitch: sideways or back passes were forbidden: it teaches you to adopt an extremely vertical approach through channels and zones.
I've grown up with the attitude that we must win every game at Bayern Munich. Pressure is an everyday thing for me. Munich players are winners by definition: they don't get to play there otherwise. And they're very much aware of it. That breeds self belief which in turn leads to more wins and is underscored by a very Bavarian type of confidence that outsiders sometimes mistake for arrogance.
Football is a naturally superstitious. They tend to believe in the power of routine, in repetitiveness. It's how they've lived their entire professional lives. You do the things that work and discard those that don't.
April 14, 2018
This was an illuminating analysis of how Germany won the 2014 World Cup, looking at the matches themselves in detail interspersed with a brief history of the reforms in German football since 1998, and how they translated onto the pitch, managing to shed new light on matches I'd watched and also reveal what happened behind the scenes.
Although Honigstein is German, this is almost a detached analysis of the national team, but with a true reflection of how various figures were viewed in Germany, such as Klopp being revered for his tournament analysis and the effect of Mertesacker's post-Algeria rallying call. The timeline is broadly 1998 onwards, although it is Klinsmann's reign that has the first serious discussion, and despite his poor tenure at Bayern, Honigstein attributes a lot of praise to Löw's predecessor. Both managers and infrastructure received praise, such as the need for top clubs to have academies - but with the foresight from the German FA to recognise that a central centre (like in France and now England) was not aligned to club requirements for long-term success. Touches such as these created the sense that this was Germany making their own luck.
Because Honigstein did admit that some luck was needed. This was especially true in the final against Argentina, where many opposition chances were spurned, and you do wonder whether this book would even have been produced had Higuain been more clinical that day. As a counter it was suggested though that the 2014 side had a bit more nous, with the surprising revelation that Germany had not practiced set pieces to a significant degree in previous tournaments, but scoring some crucial goals this way en route to winning the trophy.
Some aspects were not quite as revelatory, in particular a discussion of a new breed of coaches. Klopp was an obvious example to profile, however Ralf Ragnick seemed to struggle at big clubs and have to prove himself with smaller clubs, which didn't seem relevant to German success, other than to use Hoffenheim vs Bayern as the best match German football had produced. The Footbonaut was notable as a machine but its actual influence is questionable.
That aside, the book rarely dragged and managed to capture the characters involved without overlooking the structural changes, and had personality without being about the author at any point. This was a lot more polished that his other work on English football.
Although Honigstein is German, this is almost a detached analysis of the national team, but with a true reflection of how various figures were viewed in Germany, such as Klopp being revered for his tournament analysis and the effect of Mertesacker's post-Algeria rallying call. The timeline is broadly 1998 onwards, although it is Klinsmann's reign that has the first serious discussion, and despite his poor tenure at Bayern, Honigstein attributes a lot of praise to Löw's predecessor. Both managers and infrastructure received praise, such as the need for top clubs to have academies - but with the foresight from the German FA to recognise that a central centre (like in France and now England) was not aligned to club requirements for long-term success. Touches such as these created the sense that this was Germany making their own luck.
Because Honigstein did admit that some luck was needed. This was especially true in the final against Argentina, where many opposition chances were spurned, and you do wonder whether this book would even have been produced had Higuain been more clinical that day. As a counter it was suggested though that the 2014 side had a bit more nous, with the surprising revelation that Germany had not practiced set pieces to a significant degree in previous tournaments, but scoring some crucial goals this way en route to winning the trophy.
Some aspects were not quite as revelatory, in particular a discussion of a new breed of coaches. Klopp was an obvious example to profile, however Ralf Ragnick seemed to struggle at big clubs and have to prove himself with smaller clubs, which didn't seem relevant to German success, other than to use Hoffenheim vs Bayern as the best match German football had produced. The Footbonaut was notable as a machine but its actual influence is questionable.
That aside, the book rarely dragged and managed to capture the characters involved without overlooking the structural changes, and had personality without being about the author at any point. This was a lot more polished that his other work on English football.
September 10, 2022
To my pleasant surprise, this book revealed more about the German psyche (at least that of the Bavarian / Swabian side) than a German comparative literature class I took in college. Hats off to the author (who, according to Wikipedia, moved from Munich to London at twenty years of age) for clarifying the cultural currents behind the modernization of German football. I particularly loved the German slang and idioms (e.g. Kopfmensch / head person, Gelegenheit macht Diebe / opportunity makes thieves).
Like the author wrote, “[i]mmortality is a hard thing to escape'', few World Cup teams have been as complete as the 2014 Nationalmannschaften and even fewer are book-worthy. As much as I appreciated the abstract thinking of Löw and the Raumdeuter or the quiet leadership of Lahm and Basti, I thought the star of the book was Bierhoff. The chapter on his vision for Campo Bahia got me all teary and turned this book into a highly enjoyable case study on transformational management.
“Reform is not a process that happens in episodes. Reform has to become a permanent state.”
— Klinsmann
Like the author wrote, “[i]mmortality is a hard thing to escape'', few World Cup teams have been as complete as the 2014 Nationalmannschaften and even fewer are book-worthy. As much as I appreciated the abstract thinking of Löw and the Raumdeuter or the quiet leadership of Lahm and Basti, I thought the star of the book was Bierhoff. The chapter on his vision for Campo Bahia got me all teary and turned this book into a highly enjoyable case study on transformational management.
“Reform is not a process that happens in episodes. Reform has to become a permanent state.”
— Klinsmann
November 1, 2015
In depth and entertaining view of how Germany rebuilt it's football system with insight from superstars to unheralded coaches who were ahead of their time. Two guest written chapters by national players who did not win world cup was intriguing as well, and gives a good sense of how fine a line there is between runner-up frustration and world glory at the highest level. Was never aware of the hurdles and old guard politics that needed to be overcome, which Honigstein chronicles exceptionally well. Some of the work on the periphery of the team, like software developers, psychiatrists, or advance location and opponent scouts show the extent of German preparedness and thoroughness that can win games before the opening kick. Also shows how much football can come to symbolize the German nation, and how this team now represents the multicultural place Germany is. Goes beyond X's and O's with cultural insight and some German words and phrases that I believed were beyond translation ha ha.
January 14, 2017
Not sure I loved the structure of this book, especially at the end -- it flips back and forth between tournaments, and even within tournaments, for no discernable reason. The ending is rather weak and almost makes it seem like Honigstein, one of the most respected writers on German football, wants to remind us that he's in with the big names of fussball -- which also seems to be what he's doing when he lets a player write a brief chapter.
But overall the pace is good, the anecdotes interesting and, most importantly, it's got plenty of relevant details outlining the decade Germany spent reinventing itself to find their path to the World Cup trophy.
But overall the pace is good, the anecdotes interesting and, most importantly, it's got plenty of relevant details outlining the decade Germany spent reinventing itself to find their path to the World Cup trophy.
September 19, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed going behind the scenes of Germany's decade-long soccer revival. As an American, I see the German dedication with a mix of jealousy and pride. The German commitment and creativity is impressive and enviable, and the book's superb access puts you right there along Germany's ascension, for big-picture thinking and detail-oriented planning. Jurgen Klinsmann's role in the rebuilding is particularly fascinating and insightful, since he's currently coaching the U.S. Highly recommended to soccer fans.
August 3, 2016
Brilliantly researched and written account of the ten year path to Germany's 2014 World Cup win. Easily the best football related book I've read.
August 1, 2017
Reading the synopsis, what I was expecting was a chronological run-through of the steps that led to the Germans winning the World Cup in 2014.
The steps are probably covered, but the book’s format means it’s hard to pick them out. We jump around the timeline so often I had difficulty keeping track of where we were. Added to that is a lack of detail about much of what was done.
This is intermingled with quotes of criticism from former football greats and newspapers that, while giving context and showing what the agents of change were up against, don’t really add anything.
Large swathes of the book are taken up with blow-by-blow accounts of various matches. Football isn’t enthralling in the form of the written word. I get the impression these were added to help bulk the book up, though some lessons are pulled out of particular plays.
There are some great quotes from the players who took part in the tournaments discussed, which offer some insights about how they felt and how various decisions impacted them, though with little tactical detail.
From what I gleaned:
- It started many years prior with a push to get more professional coaches at grassroots level. This enabled them to find a larger pool of talent to feed into the clubs and to develop players in the provinces.
- The German FA encouraged the clubs to overhaul their youth policy and build academies, while setting rules on the number of international players within them. This helped develop a young talent pool that had been trained the same way.
- They focused on the detail, whether it was improving fitness, set pieces, tactics, hotels, mental conditioning — anything that they thought could give them an edge, nothing was too small.
Technology was used to help review performance and prepare players, as well as engaging them in tactics.
- Removing the dogma around the importance of ‘great players’ and instead focusing on a great team. Team spirit also came up several times. Not that key players and personalities didn’t prove important.
- Dropping old ideas like sweepers and a defense-first mentality, as well as being flexible about striking options.
- Luck — personnel changes, often enforced, and last-minute tactical decisions proved successful but could have destroyed them.
There may have been others, certainly there was some interesting technology mentioned that I hadn’t seen or heard of before, but which gets only a few paragraphs. It was hard to pull much else out though.
This book needs a good edit to re-order it. Starting with either the appointment of Klinsmann — who seems to have spearheaded some of the changes — or perhaps the win in Brazil, before returning to the years when unsung heroes lobbied the German FA for more grassroots coaching.
Charlie Anson does a good job narrating, even if the pronunciation of some names is a little odd to my (English) ears.
Not a bad book, but chaotically organised.
The steps are probably covered, but the book’s format means it’s hard to pick them out. We jump around the timeline so often I had difficulty keeping track of where we were. Added to that is a lack of detail about much of what was done.
This is intermingled with quotes of criticism from former football greats and newspapers that, while giving context and showing what the agents of change were up against, don’t really add anything.
Large swathes of the book are taken up with blow-by-blow accounts of various matches. Football isn’t enthralling in the form of the written word. I get the impression these were added to help bulk the book up, though some lessons are pulled out of particular plays.
There are some great quotes from the players who took part in the tournaments discussed, which offer some insights about how they felt and how various decisions impacted them, though with little tactical detail.
From what I gleaned:
- It started many years prior with a push to get more professional coaches at grassroots level. This enabled them to find a larger pool of talent to feed into the clubs and to develop players in the provinces.
- The German FA encouraged the clubs to overhaul their youth policy and build academies, while setting rules on the number of international players within them. This helped develop a young talent pool that had been trained the same way.
- They focused on the detail, whether it was improving fitness, set pieces, tactics, hotels, mental conditioning — anything that they thought could give them an edge, nothing was too small.
Technology was used to help review performance and prepare players, as well as engaging them in tactics.
- Removing the dogma around the importance of ‘great players’ and instead focusing on a great team. Team spirit also came up several times. Not that key players and personalities didn’t prove important.
- Dropping old ideas like sweepers and a defense-first mentality, as well as being flexible about striking options.
- Luck — personnel changes, often enforced, and last-minute tactical decisions proved successful but could have destroyed them.
There may have been others, certainly there was some interesting technology mentioned that I hadn’t seen or heard of before, but which gets only a few paragraphs. It was hard to pull much else out though.
This book needs a good edit to re-order it. Starting with either the appointment of Klinsmann — who seems to have spearheaded some of the changes — or perhaps the win in Brazil, before returning to the years when unsung heroes lobbied the German FA for more grassroots coaching.
Charlie Anson does a good job narrating, even if the pronunciation of some names is a little odd to my (English) ears.
Not a bad book, but chaotically organised.
November 1, 2021
Das Reboot by Lothar-Günther ReBuchheim, excuse me, by Raphael Honigstein sets out to (slide) tackle the story of the German National Football team's victorious 2014 World Cup campaign. While Die Mannschaft proved victorious, Das Reboot leaves much on the pitch. The scope of the book extends to cover the greater story of the development of the German Football Association from the bygone days of Franz Beckenbauer through its various successes and failures, off and on the field. This grand scope is where I believe my greatest misgivings stem from. The chronology of the book is all over the place, jumping from one tournament to another. Several times I was left scratching my head wondering what year and what tournament I was currently reading. This was done to give a wholistic look at the journey of the German team, allowing for insight into the true importance of the Brazilian World Cup, but for me it simply made the larger narrative disjointed and lacking any momentum. This is most exemplified best towards the latter half of the book. A succession of chapters covered the famous 7-1 demolition against Brazil, then jumps to before the tournament to talk about the German training camp, then a chapter about the revamped free kick techniques, then an interview with a bit player from the 2010 team, then finally we reach the World Cup Final. This stretch of chapters is puzzling to me. Many segments feel out of place, with no relation to the chapters before or after them. I imagine Honigstein did not want to backload the descriptions of the actual games, but I could find no flow in the structure of the book. And the book's writing, while not necessarily bad, does not inspire much. The sections on German football and its internal workings are the best part of the book, and fans of the team will assuredly enjoy them. But whenever Honigstein drifts away from Germany, the quality drops. Most glaring to me was the misnaming of Ghanaian player André Ayew, who was called Andrew Ayew. I likely only noticed because of his time at Swansea (we'll be back in the Prem on of these days), but such a simple detail cast a doubt over the rest of the book. Which brings me back to my issue of the scope. When Honigstein is writing about Germany, its fine, even if he tends to have a bias towards the German media and Bayern Munich, but that may be my Leverkusen-tinted glasses talking. But when he leaves that place of comfort, the writing starts to approach amateur levels. Even the parts I just claimed were quality still have a tendency to be dryly and technically written, but perhaps that is the German style. The book certainly has value if you are interested in the subject, and as someone who has two German National team jerseys hanging in his closet I certainly do, but otherwise I feel this book has too many faults to recommend to casual readers, and even for enthusiasts I would be hesitant.
June 14, 2021
Libri tregon në thellësi se si Kombëtarja e Gjermanisë dhe DFB (Federata e Futbollit Gjerman), ndryshuan rrënjësisht strukturën e brendshme të organizimit të futbollit, duke kulmuar mbrëmjen e 13 korrikut të vitit 2014, në stadiumin “Maracanã” të Brazilit.
Struktura e futbollit gjerman ndryshoi pas dështimeve radhazi në Kampionatin Botëror (Francë 1998), dhe Kampionateve Europiane (Holandë, Belgjikë 2000, dhe Portugali 2004). Arritja në finalen e Kampionatit Botëror të vitit 2002, u pa më tepër si anomali që nuk përfaqësonte gjendjen reale të futbollit gjerman. “Ekipi i Voller që përfundoi në vend të dytë në vitin 2002, ishte shumë i varuar nga principet e tri K. Kahn, Kampf (luftë) dhe Kopfball (goditjet me kokë). Për sukses në fushë, duhej një transformimi i gjithë strukturës nacionale të futbollit, dhe pikërisht kjo gjë ndodhi.
Hapi i parë: qendrat regjionale (Stützpunkt) që do mundësonin stërvitje individuale teknike për 4000 13-17 vjeçar një herë në javë. Gjithashtu, mbi 10 mijë fëmijë nën moshën 12 vjeçare do të kishin qasje në stërvitje në këto qendra një herë në javë. Kostoja totale, 2.6 milionë euro në vit.
Secili duhej të kishte qasje në një qendër rajonale brenda 25 kilometrave nga shtëpia e tij.
Hapi i dytë: Federata e bën të obligueshme që të gjitha klubet në Bundesligë dhe Bundesliga II të ndërtojnë akademi, qendra të përformancës. Akademia u bë kushti i licensimit për të luajtur futboll profesionist nga sezonin 2002/03. Klubet investuan 114 milionë euro në dy vitet e para.
Hapi i tretë: Radha e Federatës për të përmisuar infrastrukturën. Stützpunkt centralizohet, rrjeti nacional shtrihet në 366 lokacione, ku mbi 600 mijë talent mund të shiheshin nga 1300 trajnerët e licensuar të Federatës. Buxheti vjetor rritet në 14 milionë euro.
Nga fundi i sezonit 2014-15, 36 klubet më të mëdha në Gjermani kishin shpenzuar mbi 1 miliard euro në ngritjen e infrastrukturës për futbollistët e rinj, ku 5200 lojtarë të rinj po zhvilloheshin në 54 qendra të performances.
Talentët elitar bënin stërvitje 3-4 herë në javë. Tani bëjnë stërvitje 6-9 herë në javë nga trajnerë të licensuar që punojnë full-time me ta. 20 vite më parë, seniorët dhe ekipet e moshave drejtoheshin si dy entite të pavaruara, sot ato kanë një filozofi uniforme nga lartë-poshtë.
Klubet elitare sinkronizuan kurrikulat si dhe oraret me shkollat fillore dhe të mesme në regjionin ku ndodheshin. Në qendrat e performances shikohej edhe suksesi akademik i fëmijëve. Aseti kryesor i lojtarit është truri. Nuk është në pyetje futbolli apo shkolla – shkolla është gjithmonë e para për të gjithë.
21 nga 23 lojtarët që triumfuan në Kampionatin Botëror “Brazili 2014” ishin produkte të sistemit të akademive. Gjashtë nga ta morën trajnimet e para elitare në qendrat regjionale të Federatës. 10 prej tyre nuk do të luanin me shumë gjasë kurrë për Gjermaninë pa ato qendra.
Struktura e futbollit gjerman ndryshoi pas dështimeve radhazi në Kampionatin Botëror (Francë 1998), dhe Kampionateve Europiane (Holandë, Belgjikë 2000, dhe Portugali 2004). Arritja në finalen e Kampionatit Botëror të vitit 2002, u pa më tepër si anomali që nuk përfaqësonte gjendjen reale të futbollit gjerman. “Ekipi i Voller që përfundoi në vend të dytë në vitin 2002, ishte shumë i varuar nga principet e tri K. Kahn, Kampf (luftë) dhe Kopfball (goditjet me kokë). Për sukses në fushë, duhej një transformimi i gjithë strukturës nacionale të futbollit, dhe pikërisht kjo gjë ndodhi.
Hapi i parë: qendrat regjionale (Stützpunkt) që do mundësonin stërvitje individuale teknike për 4000 13-17 vjeçar një herë në javë. Gjithashtu, mbi 10 mijë fëmijë nën moshën 12 vjeçare do të kishin qasje në stërvitje në këto qendra një herë në javë. Kostoja totale, 2.6 milionë euro në vit.
Secili duhej të kishte qasje në një qendër rajonale brenda 25 kilometrave nga shtëpia e tij.
Hapi i dytë: Federata e bën të obligueshme që të gjitha klubet në Bundesligë dhe Bundesliga II të ndërtojnë akademi, qendra të përformancës. Akademia u bë kushti i licensimit për të luajtur futboll profesionist nga sezonin 2002/03. Klubet investuan 114 milionë euro në dy vitet e para.
Hapi i tretë: Radha e Federatës për të përmisuar infrastrukturën. Stützpunkt centralizohet, rrjeti nacional shtrihet në 366 lokacione, ku mbi 600 mijë talent mund të shiheshin nga 1300 trajnerët e licensuar të Federatës. Buxheti vjetor rritet në 14 milionë euro.
Nga fundi i sezonit 2014-15, 36 klubet më të mëdha në Gjermani kishin shpenzuar mbi 1 miliard euro në ngritjen e infrastrukturës për futbollistët e rinj, ku 5200 lojtarë të rinj po zhvilloheshin në 54 qendra të performances.
Talentët elitar bënin stërvitje 3-4 herë në javë. Tani bëjnë stërvitje 6-9 herë në javë nga trajnerë të licensuar që punojnë full-time me ta. 20 vite më parë, seniorët dhe ekipet e moshave drejtoheshin si dy entite të pavaruara, sot ato kanë një filozofi uniforme nga lartë-poshtë.
Klubet elitare sinkronizuan kurrikulat si dhe oraret me shkollat fillore dhe të mesme në regjionin ku ndodheshin. Në qendrat e performances shikohej edhe suksesi akademik i fëmijëve. Aseti kryesor i lojtarit është truri. Nuk është në pyetje futbolli apo shkolla – shkolla është gjithmonë e para për të gjithë.
21 nga 23 lojtarët që triumfuan në Kampionatin Botëror “Brazili 2014” ishin produkte të sistemit të akademive. Gjashtë nga ta morën trajnimet e para elitare në qendrat regjionale të Federatës. 10 prej tyre nuk do të luanin me shumë gjasë kurrë për Gjermaninë pa ato qendra.
September 9, 2017
I enjoy Rapha's work online and on podcasts, plus I'm a supporter of Nationalmannschaft, so I'm about as primed a reader as one could be for Das Reboot. Given the book's title, I was expecting a chronicle of the team starting after it finished 7th at the 1998 World Cup. Frame of reference is important because though that was a disappointing result for Germany, many countries would be thrilled. Further, Germany is one of a handful of countries to even qualify for every World Cup (1950 excepted due to a FIFA ban). So, some perspective is in order. Honigstein does frequently mention the expectations of supporters and how high they are.
As the book advertises, he also reports on the "rebuilding" effort from 1998 onward while mixing in some post-war highs and lows. He does this mainly by going deep on the 2006 and 2014 World Cups, the former was when Germany played host, the latter when Germany one. Good stuff.
However, the book has three major problems.
The first and biggest problem is that for some inexplicable reason the book is published out of chronology. I'm at a loss as to why Honigstein jumps back and forth between 2006 and 2014. The players may be different, but Joachim Low was the assistant manager in 2006 and the head coach in 2014, so when he is mentioned the reader must reconfigure where he's at in time. That isn't always clear. In this vein, Honigstein deploys the usual journalistic practice of referring to players by their last name. That's fine. But when a player hasn't been mentioned for 30 pages and we've moved in time at least twice, it's not plain why this player's opinion matters or what his context is in the larger story. This isn't really an issue if you read the book in one sitting, but most people won't do that. I'm somewhere between a casual fan and a face-painting, season ticket-holding lunatic and I had trouble keeping track. An index or short glossary page would have been helpful. I probably could have read Das Reboot had it had one.
Secondly, Honigstein writes about what certain media outlets had to say about this off-the-field crisis or that particular match. No one cares what the media thought. Seriously.
Finally, the change to Jurgen Klinsmann in advance of the 2006 World Cup is pivotal to the team's renaissance. His tactics were a break from the previous generations and he was (and is) a controversial figure. We get a lot about the internal politics--the chance for some to settle scores was too much to resist apparently--and some about the tactics. I was looking for more tactics. What was Klinsmann doing on the practice pitch that made a difference? That made players adapt? I was hoping for more of this.
A missed opportunity but still better than a sanitized player or coach memoir of the turnaround.
As the book advertises, he also reports on the "rebuilding" effort from 1998 onward while mixing in some post-war highs and lows. He does this mainly by going deep on the 2006 and 2014 World Cups, the former was when Germany played host, the latter when Germany one. Good stuff.
However, the book has three major problems.
The first and biggest problem is that for some inexplicable reason the book is published out of chronology. I'm at a loss as to why Honigstein jumps back and forth between 2006 and 2014. The players may be different, but Joachim Low was the assistant manager in 2006 and the head coach in 2014, so when he is mentioned the reader must reconfigure where he's at in time. That isn't always clear. In this vein, Honigstein deploys the usual journalistic practice of referring to players by their last name. That's fine. But when a player hasn't been mentioned for 30 pages and we've moved in time at least twice, it's not plain why this player's opinion matters or what his context is in the larger story. This isn't really an issue if you read the book in one sitting, but most people won't do that. I'm somewhere between a casual fan and a face-painting, season ticket-holding lunatic and I had trouble keeping track. An index or short glossary page would have been helpful. I probably could have read Das Reboot had it had one.
Secondly, Honigstein writes about what certain media outlets had to say about this off-the-field crisis or that particular match. No one cares what the media thought. Seriously.
Finally, the change to Jurgen Klinsmann in advance of the 2006 World Cup is pivotal to the team's renaissance. His tactics were a break from the previous generations and he was (and is) a controversial figure. We get a lot about the internal politics--the chance for some to settle scores was too much to resist apparently--and some about the tactics. I was looking for more tactics. What was Klinsmann doing on the practice pitch that made a difference? That made players adapt? I was hoping for more of this.
A missed opportunity but still better than a sanitized player or coach memoir of the turnaround.
July 17, 2025
In Das Reboot, Raphael Honigstein delivers a compelling narrative of how Germany transformed its football identity after a string of disappointments in the late '90s and early 2000s. With journalistic precision, he weaves together interviews, cultural insights, and on-the-ground reporting to explain how a nation known for rigid tactics and stoic discipline evolved into a creative, dynamic football powerhouse. The book is especially gripping in how it outlines the internal struggles and institutional reforms that ultimately led to Germany’s 2014 World Cup triumph.
What stands out is Honigstein’s ability to connect broader societal shifts—such as openness to immigration, youth development, and modern management styles—with changes in football strategy. He highlights key figures like Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Löw, whose bold decisions sparked a tactical and psychological revolution. From training grounds to locker room culture, Das Reboot showcases how innovation and humility redefined Germany’s approach to the beautiful game. Even fans not traditionally interested in German football will find themselves absorbed by the rich storytelling and behind-the-scenes revelations.
For anyone brainstorming fresh Soccer team names or simply curious about building a winning team culture, this book offers both inspiration and insight. It's not just about football—it’s about leadership, adaptability, and the power of reimagining tradition. Das Reboot is a must-read for sports fans, coaches, and those fascinated by the intersection of sport, culture, and national identity.
What stands out is Honigstein’s ability to connect broader societal shifts—such as openness to immigration, youth development, and modern management styles—with changes in football strategy. He highlights key figures like Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Löw, whose bold decisions sparked a tactical and psychological revolution. From training grounds to locker room culture, Das Reboot showcases how innovation and humility redefined Germany’s approach to the beautiful game. Even fans not traditionally interested in German football will find themselves absorbed by the rich storytelling and behind-the-scenes revelations.
For anyone brainstorming fresh Soccer team names or simply curious about building a winning team culture, this book offers both inspiration and insight. It's not just about football—it’s about leadership, adaptability, and the power of reimagining tradition. Das Reboot is a must-read for sports fans, coaches, and those fascinated by the intersection of sport, culture, and national identity.
December 2, 2017
In the light of the failure of the US Men’s National Team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, I heard this book mentioned as a reference by no fewer than 3 or 4 media members to a similar crisis in Germany. This one is really interesting, but I struggled to really get into it due to the almost staccato nature of the chapters (chapters alternate back and forth between how Germany tore their program down and rebuilt it after the 2004 Euros and game logs from the 2014 Cup). The information provided is spot on, almost to the point of overload, but it is at times difficult to follow and maintain a rhythm.
An additional note for anyone else reading this as a postmortem for the US: although written prior to Klinsmann’s downfall, it’s not too hard to see how his system failed in the US after reading this book.
An additional note for anyone else reading this as a postmortem for the US: although written prior to Klinsmann’s downfall, it’s not too hard to see how his system failed in the US after reading this book.
August 11, 2018
Really terrific. I'm amazed how Honigstein manages to pack so much into this book. He highlights each of the essential characters, explores the process by which German football underwent its major reconstruction, and utilizes a nonlinear means of narrative to link all sorts of different threads to the core story. I can only imagine what his outlining must have looked like.
Perhaps most interesting to me was the ways in which conservative traditionalists attempted to sabotage the reformers every step of the way, but how these people with new methods and ideas managed to overcome that inertia to drag an obdurate nation into the 21st century. Sports can be relatively low stakes, but they have the ability to teach us lessons that can be transmuted into a plan for spurring radical change in higher stakes arenas: government, communities, etc. It's a fascinating blueprint.
Perhaps most interesting to me was the ways in which conservative traditionalists attempted to sabotage the reformers every step of the way, but how these people with new methods and ideas managed to overcome that inertia to drag an obdurate nation into the 21st century. Sports can be relatively low stakes, but they have the ability to teach us lessons that can be transmuted into a plan for spurring radical change in higher stakes arenas: government, communities, etc. It's a fascinating blueprint.
February 9, 2023
Should have read it during 2014-2017. Not a very good read now, given the performance of the German football team.
Started it because I wanted to understand what goes behind a building a successful sports team. But by the time I finished (and World Cup 2022 ended), I realised that while there's a bunch of things a country can do, luck has a huge part to play in a big tournament win.
Now given that the Germans have been getting knocked out in the group stage in the past two world cups, it's questionable whether all the great long-term interventions described in the book actually had enough of a role to play in Germany's win in 2014. 🤷♂️
The storytelling is also a little difficult to follow at times in the book.
Started it because I wanted to understand what goes behind a building a successful sports team. But by the time I finished (and World Cup 2022 ended), I realised that while there's a bunch of things a country can do, luck has a huge part to play in a big tournament win.
Now given that the Germans have been getting knocked out in the group stage in the past two world cups, it's questionable whether all the great long-term interventions described in the book actually had enough of a role to play in Germany's win in 2014. 🤷♂️
The storytelling is also a little difficult to follow at times in the book.
February 16, 2024
Das Reboot looks at the rebirth of German football that culminated in the win at the 2014 World Cup. As the German national team is the reason I like football, it was nice to see how it reached its impressive heights not long ago. The book includes fascinating stories from some of the biggest German stars of the past few decades and great insight into German football culture. I vividly remember the 2014 World Cup, so it was great to read about it from a unique angle presented by Rafa. Sadly, German football needs another revamp in 2024 after 6-7ish years of mediocrity. Regardless, my only qualm is the structure of the book, which could be distracting at times. More of a 4.3, but recommend for sure.
June 25, 2024
This was a delightful book about German soccer! It was neat to see how Germany re-structured their soccer programs nationwide by bringing in discipline in training; new and streamlined tactics, including dead-ball prep; opportunities for thousands of kids across the country to learn, grow, and be spotted in the game; and in psychological preparation and thinking. The author did a fantastic job showing the 10-year (and now longer) program that built the World Cup winning team of 2014 (!), and how the growth from hosting the World Cup in 2006 to Die Mannschaft of 2014 happened.
If you are a fan of German football, or even just a fan of the sport, this book is a worthwhile read. It really makes me want to go back and see all those goals vs. Brazil in the semifinal! ⚽ Auf geht's!
If you are a fan of German football, or even just a fan of the sport, this book is a worthwhile read. It really makes me want to go back and see all those goals vs. Brazil in the semifinal! ⚽ Auf geht's!
March 24, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to get as close as possible in seeing the behind the scenes of German football through this book. Football has changed, and it is no longer enough to just "go out and play" with a lead player spurring everyone on. It is a game that requires every player and coaches to pick their brain, to start since a young age in order to make split second decisions later on. And this is the story of the German team transforming from a team of old men playing with a sweeper at the back to the showpiece we see today.
A thing or two that other national teams can learn from surely.
A thing or two that other national teams can learn from surely.
May 22, 2021
A look at the German national team of the last three decades, and how innovations in training and tactics turned them into a football powerhouse and slowly overcame the disdain and resistance from the old guard. It's probably a better book for someone who already has a deep knowledge of Die Mannschaft (I knew the big names, but without an index or any supporting materials I got a little lost among the many managers, midfielders, journalists and executives, and Honigstein doesn't tell his story in a linear fashion so it's often hard to keep track of which edition of the Euros or the World Cup he's writing about), but Honigstein writes with an enjoyable dry wit, and when he talks about German culture and sports journalism he's engaging and entertaining.
July 12, 2017
A superb account of the groundwork laid by the German FA to restore World Cup glory to the nation. Raphael Honigstein covers a vast range of initiatives with minute detail that all come together in that iconic goal scored by Mario Gotze in the Maracana. From the local academies setup to develop youth football, to SAP's data driven and bite sized personalized insights to players, to the use of the Footbonaut to improve cognitive abilities and reaction time, the book gives us a window into how much preparation actually goes in even at the national level. A must read.
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