Germany national football team

On the international stage, the German national football team represents their country. It is governed by the German Football Association, which joined FIFA in 1908 and became part of UEFA in 1954.

The current German national team is a direct descendant of the teams of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, and West Germany.

The German national team is among the most decorated national teams in the world. It has won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014) and three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996). Furthermore, German footballers have won four silver and four bronze medals at World Cups, as well as three silver and three bronze medals at European Championships. This makes them the leaders in the total number of medals won at world and European championships. In 2017, Germany became the most recent winner of the Confederations Cup.

The Germans became the first European team to achieve the double at the national team level: they won the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup two years later under captain Franz Beckenbauer. Only France (1998 World Cup, 2000 European Championship) and Spain (2008 and 2012 European Championships, 2010 World Cup) have been able to match this achievement. For the first time, Germany became the only team with four consecutive medal appearances at World Championships (silver in 2002, bronze in 2006 and 2010, and gold in 2014). In the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championship, the Germans were eliminated without a medal due to the lack of a bronze medal ceremony.

As of mid-July 2024, Germany is ranked 13th in the FIFA rankings and fourth among European teams according to UEFA.