Julian Nagelsmann gets started. Away from the hotspots of the home tournament, the national coach welcomes his European Championship staff. The March upswing is set to continue in a rural idyll. There isn’t much time left.
Golf fan Thomas Müller will feel right at home right behind the large rust-brown iron gate. A well-tended green is nestled in a small forest clearing. The fine electric wire just below knee height at the side of the path indicates that the only unwelcome visitors to be kept out here are wild boars.
A few hundred meters further on, Bayern veteran Müller and his national team colleagues await an idyllic luxury hostel in half-timbered style before his fourth European Championship tournament as the first stop on the way to the big final on July 14 in Berlin.
How often Müller will be able to swing his club on the course at the Weimarer Land Golf Hotel in Thuringia in the coming days is in the hands of Julian Nagelsmann. The national coach will of course be tightening the reins right at the start of the training camp. After seven weeks of football summer, the crowning glory will be the European Championship title, which will be celebrated across the country. “Everyone is always expected to give it their all, regardless of whether they are 14, 2 or 18. That creates the necessary competition and excitement,” said the national coach.
In a good mood, Nagelsmann and his assistant coach Sandro Wagner watched the DFB Cup victory of his three Leverkusen European Championship players Florian Wirtz, Robert Andrich and Jonathan Tah against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday evening from the stands at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Together with sports director Rudi Völler, they traveled from the capital to Thuringia on Sunday. For the first time, the national team is preparing for a major tournament in the east of the country. For Völler, this was an important signal for the European Championship. Even if it is only five days.
Training camp as a signal to the East
“We wanted to show that we all belong together,” said Völler at a site visit in Blankenhain. People there often feel neglected when it comes to big-time football. As was the case for the 2006 World Cup, Leipzig is the only European Championship venue in the new federal states. The three European Championship group matches against Scotland (June 14/Munich), Hungary (June 19/Stuttgart) and Switzerland (June 23/Frankfurt) will all take place in the South-West cluster.
Nagelsmann cannot take regional sensitivities into account. He has to keep an eye on the conditions for perfect sporting preparation. And these are perfect in Thuringia’s isolation, with short distances between the hotel and a newly built training ground with Wembley-quality turf. The state of Thuringia has invested in the infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, around 1.5 million euros will be spent on, among other things, the renovation of the municipal sports field, the redesign of the palace forecourt and the media center.
Real and BVB stars still have Champions League date
After the DFB team, the English team will be playing with Harry Kane. The Bayern star striker is said to have given the “Three Lions” the thumbs up for the European Championship quarters just after seeing the pictures from Blankenhain and the golf courses there. Landlord Matthias Grafe, a positive, do-it-yourself type who came to Thuringia in 1990 and later renovated the old estate, jokingly insists on wanting to host the future European champions. Germany against England in the final – Nagelsmann would certainly like that too.
The national coach has to find a good mix right from the start. Of his 27 provisionally nominated players, only two thirds are there for the start. The Bayer trio Tah, Andrich, Wrtz, as well as captain Ilkay Gündogan and goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen are late because of their last league game for FC Barcelona. The four Champions League finalists from Real Madrid (Toni Kroos, Antonio Rüdiger) and Borussia Dortmund (Niclas Füllkrug, Nico Schlotterbeck) will not even join the DFB selection until after the first test match against Ukraine (3 June/Nuremberg) because of their London date on 1 June.
Gastrointestinal infection prevents Neuer from arriving
Manuel Neuer is set to make his comeback in the DFB goal after a year and a half. The 38-year-old Bayern pro, who has already been named tournament goalkeeper by Nagelsmann, was unable to travel to Blankenhain on Sunday. The reason: a gastrointestinal infection.
Nagelsmann will have to limit the workload of players who have recently been injured, such as the Bayern duo Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sané. In order to be able to practice properly, he has invited the U21 national players Brajan Gruda (Mainz 05) and Rocco Reitz (Gladbach) as training guests. The two young players will fit into the meticulous personnel concept designed by Nagelsmann with clear allocation of roles.
“We have found a good mix between very strong personalities, between personalities who can subordinate themselves and who push the others,” said the 36-year-old. “There are already two buses full of people, and that has to fit together.”
There is not much time left in Blankenhain before the move to the European Championship quarters in Herzogenaurach on Friday. And the fans’ desire to be closer to their heroes will also be taken into account before the home tournament. It starts on Monday afternoon with a public training session in front of 15,000 fans in the stadium of the regional league team Carl Zeiss Jena.
Every screw must fit
Nagelsmann then asked for understanding, in his typically relaxed manner, that there would no longer be any EM stars to touch. “We don’t want to hide or lock ourselves away. But in the end it’s normal if you want to concentrate on something. If there are 6,000 people on the assembly line, then I don’t know how the Tuareg will drive down the street, whether the screw will hold as well as it did before,” he said, drawing a comparison to factory work at the DFB’s general sponsor.
Nagelsmann knows that the March upswing with the test rush against France (2:0) and the Netherlands (2:1) will quickly evaporate if things don’t go well in the preparation or against Scotland in the opening game of the European Championship on June 14 in Munich. “I believe that stability has grown, but it is not impossible that it will crumble again. Now it’s about bringing that to the pitch in a stable manner over six weeks,” he said. And ideally in Blankenhain.
dpa
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