Is 'nation-hopping' ruining German youth football?
Many young German footballers are choosing other countries over Germany. DFB Director Andreas Rettig is aiming to change this and is calling for a compensation
Many young German footballers are choosing other countries over Germany. DFB Director Andreas Rettig is aiming to change this and is calling for a compensation fee. Some of the best young talents at the World Cup this summer include Bayer Leverkusen's Ibrahim Maza and Malik Tillman, Eintracht Frankfurt's Can Uzun, and Bayern Munich's domestic-double winner Josip Stanisic. There's also Juventus' Kenan Yıldız and PSV's Paul Wanner. Despite either being born in Germany or having gone through the academy system in the country, none of them will be playing for Germany on the world's biggest stage this summer. They all hold dual citizenship and have opted to take the field for Turkey, Algeria, the USA, Croatia or Austria. Whether for sporting, emotional, or family reasons, or because they hoped doing so would give their own careers a boost, their choice is also a conscious choice against Germany. This development has shaken German FA (DFB) Director Andreas Rettig. Salih Özcan is one of the most capped youth German players ever, but now represents Turkey Image: Mutsu Kawamori/AFLOSPORT/IMAGO Are Germany's best young players opting to play elsewhere? Most of the aforementioned footballers are regular starters at their clubs, and some of them are among the best players in their respective positions. Given, as Rettig notes, that youth international players spend between 50 and 70 days a year under the care of the DFB, all of them could have played a pivotal role in the Germany team. "More than 40% of children under the age of five in Germany have a migrant background.
This gives them the option of choosing one country over another," Rettig told DW. This figure, he fears, is bound to lead to a rising number of potential international players willing to switch allegiances. "We must address this issue seriously to ensure that we don't end up in a situation where many of those players who trained here go on to seek their fortune elsewhere," said Rettig. Andreas Rettig (right) is concerned about the development of "nation-hopping" in football Image: Bernd Feil/MIS/IMAGO 'Trending in the wrong direction' Last year, Rettig unveiled his vision of a "training compensation" scheme intended to change the current situation. "Training must pay off—both for the person being trained and for the trainer," the 63-year-old insisted. "I would like to see us develop a system in which training is rewarded, and where we can then reinvest that training compensation back into grassroots development." The idea behind this is simple. Training costs per player per day would be calculated precisely, leading to a compensation claim. This would be communicated transparently to all parties involved, with the aim of raising the barrier against countries poaching players from other nations. Rettig emphasized that his objective is not merely to secure financial compensation for the DFB, but rather to benefit to the entire football world. "We need to raise awareness that every association needs to invest in training," said the DFB director, who noted that some national associations "invest more money, time, and effort into scouting players than they do into training them themselves." Rettig believes this is a move in the wrong direction, and hopes that a transparent training compensation system as he is proposing would curb this behavior and lead to increased investment in domestic youth development.
The BriefWire