By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Behind the so far successful German campaign at Brazil's World Cup stands a fundamental change in the education system of Germany's football.
Only 14 years ago Germany hit rock bottom when finished last in its European Championship group due to old fashioned tactics. As a result of that painful knock out the Germans decided to follow new tracks.
Top-seeded at the World Cup finals in Brazil, the German team of 2014 is playing a fast, furious, forward-oriented and effective game of highest standards.
The squad includes bright youngsters like Andre Schuerrle (23/Arsenal), Toni Kroos (24), Thomas Mueller (24), Jerome Boateng (25), Mario Goetze (23/all Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels (25/Borussia Dortmund) and lesser known players like Erik Durm (22/Dortmund), Matthias Ginter (20/SC Freiburg), Julian Draxler (20/FC Schalke 04), Shkodran Mustafi (22/Sampdoria Genua) and Christoph Kramer (23/Borussia Moenchengladbach).
OBLIGATORY FOOTBALL ACADEMY
The fundamental move was that the "Deutscher Futball Bund" (DFB - German Football Association) forced all professional clubs to establish football academies to train and educate young players otherwise they wouldn't be given a license.
The first suggestion for a change came from the former German national coach Berti Vogts, who had called for a new concept as far back as 1984. Most of today's stars started at one of the club-academies.
In the club academies teachers and coaches look after sports and school on basis of a strict daily plan. Teachers help the youngsters to catch up with school matters if they missed day's at school due to football training or games. Cooks provide for athlete's suitable food. Up to 20 youngsters live in special rooms in the academies; others just spend the day in the academy and sleep at home.
"I admire the great number of young players that went through the academies. These high-speed-footballers are able to play extremely fast and change positions all the time. We have wrote down things like that on flipcharts in 2004 when I started to take over Germany's squad," former German coach (2004-2006) and today's US-coach Juergen Klinsmann says.
The DFB also took a close look at migrant families to require new talents. Players like Oezil (Turkish roots) and Khedira (Tunisian roots) may be a result of that policy.\
OBEY STRICT ECONOMIC RULES
On top of everything, the German Bundesliga clubs don't have the problem of having huge sums of money to buy international stars as they have to obey strict economic rules. Investors are not allowed to own more than 49 per cent of a club, which is called the "50 plus 1 law", meaning no "rich sheik" can gain power over a club.
From 2006 on, 12 German-born players are required to be in the squad of which eight have to be so-called "local players" having played at least three years for a German club between the ages of 15 and 21.
The coach training programmes were brought in line with the latest knowledge and technology and they have led to a new, modern generation of coaches that demand a tactically flexible and fast football.
400 SPORTS FOR ADDITIONAL TRAINING
Financially, the Germans were still "stuffy Germans" forcing clubs to balance their finances. Football-wise they opened their doors to new ideas, meaning new tactics and training methods and a restructured education system.
Since the restart, over 700 million euro has been invested in the new education system in which talented youngsters also get additional coaching from the association at almost 400 federation linked centres.
That may have helped many kids to change their minds. In a survey, 17.3 per cent of the six to twelve-year old boys answered that they wanted become a professional footballer when they grew up. Only 10 per cent wanted to be a policeman and just 7.5 a pilot.
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