The Germany national football team (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), founded in 1900. From 1950 to 1990, it was essentially the team of West Germany, as the DFB is based in Frankfurt, located in the former West Germany. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate national teams were also recognized by FIFA: the Saarland team (1950–1956) and the East German team (1952–1990). Both have been absorbed along with their records by the current national team. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" in 1990.
Germany is one of the three most successful national teams in international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) and three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996). They have also been runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup, and have won a further four third places. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cups. The current coaching staff of the national team include head coach Joachim Löw, assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick, goalkeeper coach Andreas Köpke, athletic coach Shad Forsythe, athletic coach Oliver Bartlett, scout Urs Siegenthaler, sporting director Robin Dutt, and team manager Oliver Bierhoff.
Read more about Germany National Football Team: Results, Stadiums, Kit, Nickname, Competition Records, Managers
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“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“We are fighting in the quarrel of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny. Germany has become a menace to the whole world. She is the most dangerous enemy of liberty now existing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievments must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
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—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)