Jürgen Klopp has made a characteristically loud start as Germany's national team coach, naming not one squad but two – a sprawling 44-player pool that includes 16 uncapped players – for upcoming Nations League fixtures against the Netherlands, Greece and Serbia.
The headline beyond the team sheet is his message about national identity. Klopp, wearing a black-red-gold cap reading "One of 83 million," said he wants Germans to "reclaim the flag" and embrace what he calls positive patriotism, so that waving the national colours reads as joy rather than politics. His comments landed just as the far-right AfD won a state election in Saxony-Anhalt, and he was explicit about not wanting national pride "left to the wrong people."
On the football side, the expanded rosters turn the autumn window into a wide-open audition for Euro 2028. Florian Wirtz and Kai Havertz will likely play no more than two of the four games as Klopp spreads minutes across new faces – among them Elversberg's Felix Keidel, Eintracht Frankfurt's Younes Ebnoutalib, Celtic's Mika Baur, Brentford's Vitaly Janelt and Cologne's Said El Mala. Karim Adeyemi returns after 11 months out following his strong start at Barcelona, and Ajax's Marc-Andre ter Stegen takes over as first-choice goalkeeper after Manuel Neuer's international retirement.
Two big names are conspicuously absent. Striker Deniz Undav, Germany's standout at the World Cup with three goals and two assists before the round-of-32 penalty defeat to Paraguay that ended Julian Nagelsmann's tenure, is left out entirely, as is Galatasaray winger Leroy Sane, stuck on 80 caps.
For travellers, the fixtures are worth diarising: Germany host the Netherlands on September 24, Greece on September 27, Serbia on October 1 and Greece again on October 4. With the Nations League allowing squads of 23 named before each match and free rotation between games, you may see a genuinely different Germany XI at every venue – a rare chance to watch a rebuilt national side live during a chaotic rebuild.