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FILE PHOTO - Thomas Helmer, former professional soccer player, comes to the evening event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the German Bundesliga. Soeren Stache/dpa
Germany's World Cup players lacked attitude and passion en route to their early exit from the tournament, former national team defender Thomas Helmer has said.
“What alarmed me is not that we don’t have the best players in terms of performance or depth – but rather the attitude, the determination, that refusal to give up, which we’ve always had before,” Helmer told broadcasters Sport1.
Helmer said that the supposedly smaller teams "at least gave their all" while “here, I sometimes get the feeling that being a national team player isn’t anything special anymore.
“For me, it was the greatest thing in the world to travel to an international match – whether it was against Luxembourg or Brazil, it didn’t matter at all. We need to get back to that point where a tournament also feels like something special,” Helmer said.
Helmer, who won 68 Germany caps highlighted by the Euro 1996 title, conceded that Germany is no longer among the world’s best.
Germany went out in the round of 32 two weeks ago on penalties against Paraguay, after group stage exits in 2018 and 2022.
But Helmer, 61, expressed hope that designated new national team coach Jürgen Klopp can turn matters around again.
“I believe he can win the lads over and instil in them the right mentality and attitude that we’ve been lacking recently," Helmer said.
"He certainly doesn’t have the depth or vast choice of players, but I believe he can still get a lot more out of almost all of them.”
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