Germany have the makings of another European dynasty

The world champions are young enough to emulate France and Spain by dominating the game over the long term, writes Ian Hawkey.

Mario Gotze celebrates the winner against Argentina. Martin Rose / Getty Images

Germany’s capital city this morning rolls out the red carpet for “Jogi’s Jungs” – Joachim Loew’s boys – as the German media has taken to naming the new world champions. The hope is that fine weather will bring the sorts of crowds onto the streets around the Brandenburg Gate that have rarely been seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The supporters have good reason to believe today’s event may be the first of a few such victory parades.

As the nickname suggests, the Germany who beat Argentina 1-0 in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday are a largely youthful bunch. A Jogi Jung like Mario Gotze, the scorer, can aim for at least two more World Cups in his career span and, if he looks after himself as carefully and painstakingly as, say, Miroslav Klose has done, he can target another three, plus the European championships of 2016, 2020, 2024 and 2028.

Gotze is 22. The average age of the squad in Brazil was just over 26. Take away 36-year-old Klose’s contribution to raising that median and most of the group can realistically aim for a few more titles. They will be encouraged to think in terms of building a dynasty, too.

Many of the players who gather on the upper storey of their opened-top bus in Berlin have done similar journeys before. In 2006, Germans took to the streets to celebrate and thank the national team for finishing third, as hosts, at that summer’s World Cup.

There were also ceremonies to greet the bronze medallists who came from South Africa 2010.

But had the tight 120 minutes on Sunday gone Argentina’s way, there would not have been a big street party. The German Football Federation had decided that too many recent near-misses have been glorified.

Loew, the coach, talked after the final about a 10-year process defining this triumph. He has been involved with the national team all that time.

He is contracted with the team for another two years, but there is some uncertainty on the question of whether he will lead the squad in France 2016 as they try to improve on their third place at the last European Championships.

Offers from heavyweight clubs come to Loew regularly but a successful international coach, working in Europe, can think positively about sustained success.

Titles come in batches more frequently than they once did. France followed their 1998 World Cup victory by seizing the next European championship, a double that had been achieved before only once, by the West Germany who were European title-holders when they won the 1974 World Cup.

Spain set a benchmark – three big trophies in succession – by retaining their European title in 2012, when they were also holders of the World Cup.

Spain’s dramatic fall from grace, eliminated in the group phase in Brazil, had symptoms of fatigue about it and coincided with a shift of hierarchy within Spanish football: Barcelona’s fall from pre-eminence.

Barca have been providers of a high proportion of players to Spain’s all-conquering national teams and inspirers of Spain’s style and systems. Their success domestically and in the Champions League coincided with Spain’s great run.

Loew’s Germany have a similar quality, beneficiaries of a dominant club, Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga and Club World Cup holders. Witness the tactical empathy between Philipp Lahm and Thomas Muller in Brazil. That is not the work of a few weeks snatched at Loew’s training camps but the fruit of five years operating together week in, week out.

The Bayern pair of Jerome Boateng and Bastian Schweinsteiger were outstanding against Argentina, and a Bayern player scored the goal.

They have no fear of these sorts of occasions: it was their sixth major final in 14 months, when you count up their adventures with Bayern.

“Playing at successful clubs has helped this set of players become more self-confident,” Loew said after the victory. He praised the influence on them of Bayern’s present and past coaches, Pep Guardiola and Jupp Heynckes.

He also name-checked Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid, who helped Sami Khedira through an injury-blighted season. Khedira had a fine World Cup, but missed the final because of a muscle problem sustained in the warm-up.

Ancelotti will next season be working with Toni Kroos, who has left Bayern for the Spanish capital. Kroos, 24, will be a key player for Germany in a future where Schweinsteiger, who turns 30 next month, contributes less energy, but he will no longer be a regular in the first XI.

Germany have strength in depth. Gotze made a noble gesture as the German players lapped the Maracana field after the trophy had been presented. He held up a German shirt with the name “Reus” on the back. Marco Reus, of Borussia Dortmund, missed the tournament with injury. He would certainly have played a major part had he been fit. He is only 25, and one of the many boys with an eye on the next prize.