Germany national football team

Nickname(s) Die Nationalelf
Association Deutscher Fußball-Bund — DFB
Confederation UEFA (Europe)
Head coach Joachim Löw
Captain Michael Ballack
Most caps Lothar Matthäus (150)
Top scorer Gerd Müller (68)
FIFA code GER
FIFA ranking 5
Highest FIFA ranking 1 (August 1993)
Lowest FIFA ranking 23 (March 2006)
Elo ranking 4
Highest Elo ranking 1 (1990-92, 1993-94, 1996-97)
Lowest Elo ranking 28 (1923)

The German national football team (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft (der Männer)) is the football team representing the country of Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) which was founded in 1900.

From 1950 to 1990, the team was also informally called West Germany in English, as since World War II, the DFB is based in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) which was commonly referred to as West Germany from 1949 to 1990. The DFB continues to field the German national team that had been fully reinstated by FIFA after the 1950 FIFA World Cup, retaining all records and traditions. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate "national" teams had also been recognized by FIFA, the French-controlled Saarland team (1950-1956), and the Soviet-controlled East German team (1952-1990). Both have been absorbed; the official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" has been shortened again to "Germany (GER)" since 1990.

Germany is one of the three most successful national teams at international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups and three European championships. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cups.

Since their penalty shootout loss to Czechoslovakia in Euro 76, Germany has not lost a penalty shootout in major international tournaments. In fact, the last penalty missed by a German player dates back to the semi-finals of the 1982 world cup when French goalkeeper Jean-Luc Ettori saved Uli Stielike's shot. In particular, England suffered two heartbreaking semi-final losses to Germany on penalties in the 1990s. As England striker Gary Lineker once said: "Football is a game with 22 people and in the end the Germans always win." In reality, Germany or German teams are among the teams with the most final losses (sometimes also very unlucky), for example in the FIFA World Cup or in the UEFA Champions League, yet they had to win first to get there.

German teams have something of a tradition of beginning their history against Switzerland: The first match ever of the German national team, the first match after World War I in 1920, the first match after World War II in 1950 when Germany was still banned from most international competitions, and the first match in 1990 with former East German players were all against Switzerland. Germany's first championship title was even won in Switzerland. Most of the home games (7 since 1911) were at Stuttgart's Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. Klaus Fischer also scored Germany's "ARD Goal of the Century" there against the Swiss in 1977, with a "Bicycle kick" ("Fallrückzieher"), his trademark move (with which he also scored the important 3:3 equalizer in overtime (108th minute) at the 1982 FIFA World Cup vs France, a goal that was not chosen for the Top 10 of the WC Goal of the Century)

At Germany's last two appearances in a Final of a major tournament - Euro 96 and World Cup 2002 - the player who had scored the decisive goal in the semi final did so knowing they would be suspended for the Final. Andreas Möller in 1996 and Michael Ballack in 2002 both picked up decisive yellow cards in the semi finals against England and South Korea respectively. Möller scored the decisive penalty in a shoot-out against England and Michael Ballack went on to score the only goal against the Koreans.

The current coaching staff of the national team include head coach Joachim Löw, assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick, goalkeeper coach Andreas Köpke, athletic coach Mark Verstegen, athletic coach Oliver Schmidtlein, scout Urs Siegenthaler, technical director Matthias Sammer and team manager Oliver Bierhoff.

Germany can boast of having the first and only goalkeeper to win the Player of the Tournament award following a World Cup, that being Oliver Kahn in 2002. Harald "Toni" Schumacher was runner-up for the award in 1986.