The Decline of German Football
The last time a German team lifted a European title, two years ago, it was almost the invasion of Eintracht Frankfurt fans at Camp Nou in the quarter-finals that made history, rather than their Europa League win against Glasgow Rangers at La Cartuja stadium in Seville, marking their first European title in 42 years.
That season, 2021-22, when Bayern Munich still ruled with an iron fist in Germany, the Eagles finished the Bundesliga in a modest eleventh place. RB Leipzig secured their first-ever title, the DFB-Pokal, while Borussia Dortmund, featuring Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland, continued their persistent fight to dethrone the Bavarian giants.
That very Bayern Munich, coached by Julian Nagelsmann and spearheaded by Robert Lewandowski, was on a relentless path, making them strong favorites for the Champions League. They dominated the group stage with six wins out of six, relegating Barcelona to the Europa League for the first time in nearly two decades, and crushed Salzburg 7-1 in the round of 16.
Surprisingly, they were eliminated by Villarreal in the quarter-finals. Bayer Leverkusen, under Swiss manager Gerardo Seoane, finished third in the league but were ousted by Atalanta in the Europa League's round of 16.
Just two years later, German football looks unrecognizable. Bayern Munich has just completed its first trophyless season in 12 years: third in the Bundesliga, knocked out by a third-division team in the DFB-Pokal, and eliminated at the last moment by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals. Their solution to right the ship has been to hire a coach who was recently relegated to England's second division, the Belgian Vincent Kompany.
Eintracht Frankfurt hasn’t established themselves in the European elite despite their triumph in Seville—and likely won't—and in Germany, their ambitions are limited to qualifying for the second-tier continental competition. They haven't staged as spectacular a European scene as they did at the Camp Nou.
RB Leipzig continues to nurture young talents and sell them for top dollar, like Nkunku and Gvardiol, and has become a regular in the Champions League, though they still lack the wings provided by their energy drink sponsor to reach the German summit—they've added another cup along the way.
The most transformed team is undoubtedly Bayer Leverkusen. After a disastrous start to the following Bundesliga season, with the team in the relegation zone, they made a decision that changed their course in history. Under Xabi Alonso’s management, they’ve reached new heights. He led the club to its first-ever Bundesliga title in nearly 120 years and won the DFB-Pokal for the first time in almost three decades, maintaining an extraordinary 51-game unbeaten run. The streak was broken by the same team that ended their European campaign in 2022, Atalanta, though this time in a much more significant setting: the Europa League final.
Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund continues to overhaul their squad constantly but keeps falling just short. They narrowly missed out on the Bundesliga in 2023 and recently lost the Champions League final. Along the way, the two gems they had in 2022 were sold for enormous sums.
In this period, a second-tier club, Union Berlin, briefly rose to prominence, even qualifying for the Champions League, only to almost get relegated the following year.
In this landscape, Germany is gearing up for the Euro 2024, which they will host. Their recent experiences in major tournaments have been so disappointing that they are hoping the Mannschaft will finally be a team worthy of the four stars on their crest.
