A penalty shootout defeat to Paraguay ended Julian Nagelsmann’s reign within days, and the federation’s answer is the man German football has wanted for a decade.
A defeat that changed a job before it changed a tournament
Julian Nagelsmann lasted four days after Boston. That’s how long it took Germany’s shootout exit to Paraguay to end his reign as head coach. Kai Havertz had cancelled out Julio Enciso’s opener on 29 June, the tie went to extra time locked at 1-1, and Jonathan Tah thought he’d won it with a header until VAR chalked it off for a shove on the goalkeeper. Havertz then missed his penalty. So did Nick Woltemade. Tah put the decisive kick over the bar and Paraguay went through 4-3. Nagelsmann resigned four days later. The German federation used the same statement to confirm it was going after Jurgen Klopp.
Data tracked by Gambling.com, home to expert-reviewed top online casino sites and independent bookmaker comparisons, already reflects the scale of the collapse. “Havertz missed, Woltemade missed, then Tah put the decisive kick over the bar. Three misses out of five, from players worth a combined fortune. No manager fixes that reflex overnight, but somebody has to start,” said one observer reviewing the numbers.
Why the DFB went straight to Klopp
There was no shortlist, not really. Bernd Neuendorf’s statement announcing Nagelsmann’s exit named Klopp in the same breath, and within hours Klopp had confirmed on Magenta TV that talks were already underway. He’s spent since January 2025 as Red Bull’s global head of soccer. Decent job, clearly doesn’t hold him. Formal talks with DFB officials are pencilled in for New York, where Klopp’s been based this summer, and vice-president Hans-Joachim Watzke rates the odds of a deal at better than 50/50, though he admits he’s a little nervous about it.
“Klopp was on close to 18 million euros a year at Liverpool and around 12 million at Red Bull,” said one sports data analyst. “Nagelsmann was on roughly seven million. Watzke talking about a patriotism discount tells you exactly who’s negotiating from need here, and it isn’t Klopp.”
There’s also the small matter of the contract. Klopp remains tied to Red Bull until 2029, with an exit clause reportedly built for this exact scenario, and compensation still has to be agreed before anything becomes official. Pep Lijnders, his old Liverpool assistant who spent last season on Guardiola’s staff at Manchester City, is expected to follow him in if the deal happens.
A squad that looks better than the result suggests
Every shootout exit produces the same lazy conclusion: golden generation, over, done. This one doesn’t hold up. Deniz Undav, a 29-year-old forward Brighton once let go, scored three goals and set up two more before Germany went out. Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala are still only 23. This has been an unusually open World Cup for the old order too, the first quarter-final round in the tournament’s history with none of Germany, the Netherlands, Italy or Brazil in it. Boston was a bad night, not a collapse in playing talent.
“The story from this World Cup wasn’t Havertz missing a penalty,” said a former Bundesliga midfielder. “Undav was written off by a Premier League club a few years back and finished the tournament with three goals and two assists. Wirtz and Musiala are still 23. Whoever takes this squad has more to work with than one shootout suggests.”
Nagelsmann himself made a similar point in Boston. He stopped short of blaming any single player and instead called for changes to how the national team operates between tournaments, not just who’s picking the side on the day. The DFB seems to have taken that seriously. It moved past a coach who’d reached a Euro 2024 quarter-final and went straight for a candidate who’s never managed at international level in his life.
What Klopp actually inherits
This isn’t a rebuild. The talent is already there. What Klopp has to fix is a group that’s now gone out early at three of the last four major tournaments, and get it to trust itself when a shootout or a marginal VAR call turns against it. Fans following the succession story, including the moment Klopp first emerged as the clear favourite to replace Nagelsmann, have watched it go from speculation to near-certainty in about a week.
Nothing’s signed. Red Bull’s compensation demands could still drag things out. But German football has spent the best part of a decade wondering what happens if Klopp finally says yes to the one job that was ever going to tempt him back to a touchline. Boston gave the DFB its excuse to ask properly. This time, it looks like getting the answer it wanted.
