“You know what I’d do? Two German national teams at the same time,” Lawrence from Office Space Jürgen Klopp.
Jürgen Klopp has been in charge of the German national team for just a few weeks and has already decided that the entire operation needs a factory reset.
How do you get that started, well….you begin with a large pool of talent. Not 23 players. Not 26 players. Not even 30.
44!
Yes, forty-four.
At this point, Klopp isn’t selecting a Germany squad. He’s conducting open tryouts and I love it. If you are
a German footballer who owns a pair of boots (well, minus these guys), congratulations, your phone might be ringing.
The sheer size of Klopp’s first squad is…interesting, but it also says something pretty clearly about what he thinks Germany needs. The national team has spent the better part of the last decade trying to rediscover its identity, and the results have been inconsistent enough that simply rearranging the same deck chairs apparently was not going to work.
So, Klopp has thrown the deck into the bonfire.
Established stars? Come on in.
Young prospects? Grab a bib.
Bundesliga players nobody expected to see in a Germany squad? There’s a parking spot for you at the training grounds.
Players with almost no international experience? Sure, why not?
There is no doubt, Klopp is starting over from scratch — and there is something extremely refreshing about it.
Rather than automatically handing spots to players because they have accumulated caps, reputations or impressive Wikipedia pages, Klopp is opening the competition. Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz. and Kai Havertz are still there. In fact, so are plenty of familiar faces, but Klopp has also brought in a collection of players who suddenly have the opportunity to make themselves impossible to ignore.
That is exactly what a rebuild should look like.
The funny part is that Klopp has created an entirely new problem for himself — eventually, he has to cut this thing down.
Inviting 44 players is the easy part. Figuring out which 20-something players can actually restore Germany to being Germany again is the hard part.
For now, though, Klopp has made one thing abundantly clear — the old Germany is over.
He’s not interested in putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls.
He’s grabbed the sledgehammer.
And judging by the size of this squad, he brought enough players to help him swing it.
Song of the Week: “Brain of J” by Pearl Jam
Yup, I’m back on another Pearl Jam kick and this time, I delved into the album, “Yield.”
My favorite track from this album “Do the Evolution” was already featured back in 2021 (five years ago already!), but “Brain of J” is very solid track from the album. Man, when this CD (yup, CD) dropped, I was all-in. I was already a massive Pearl Jam fan by that point, but this album really struck a chord with me. Enjoy:
I came across this over the past week, too, and had to post it, too. A Sega Genesis version of Pearl Jam’s “Evenflow”:
Entertainment Rundown
The Terminal List — Season 2
LEarly in 2026, we reviewed The Terminal List and now season two is about to drop:
Otherwise, I am still working through a Carnivale re-watch, which I am really enjoying.
Predictions
Will this be a dreaded getaway day game or will Bayern Munich take care of business against the Iron Ones? The Bavarians are more talented, deeper, and better — and will be at home, a nice motivator when needed.
While Leo Querfeld is a burgeoning star for Union Berlin, the center-back will have his hands full and Harry Kane should be able to take advantage of the superior talent around him for a brace.
Prediction: Bayern Munich 3-0 Union Berlin
Other Bundesliga predictions include:
- Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 SC Freiburg
- Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1 Mainz 05
- Hamburger SV 1-1 1. FC Köln
- Werder Bremen 0-2 FC Augsburg
- VfB Stuttgart 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
- Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 RB Leipzig
- FC Schalke 04 2-2 SV Elversberg
- SC Paderborn 07 0-2 TSG Hoffenheim
Prediction Records
Total: 183-80
Perfect Picks: 26
Bundesliga Last Matchday: 6-3
Bundesliga Overall: 15-12
DFB-Pokal: 29-3
World Cup: 71-28
International Friendlies: 50-30
Champions League: 12-6
Club Friendlies: 5-1
Franz Beckenbauer Supercup: 1-0
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