A sneak peek into the German youth development

Over the last few weeks and months, a lot has been said about the German youth development in football – whether it is regarding club football or the national team – and more importantly, from an English perspective, in which areas Germany has an advantage over England.

However, coverage usually stops there. There is rarely a full description of how youth development in Germany is set up, or only bits and pieces are thrown at you. Therefore, I will try to lay out the basic features and stages so you can, first of all compare it to the youth development in your respective country, and also understand more about German football and why it may work as well as it does currently.

In my opinion, there are three main pillars that hold the whole development program together: special football centres, either realised through football bases (usually for the under 11 to under 14s, in some regions even younger groups), elite schools that combine education and football and finally, the academies of the professional clubs. We will discuss that stage in more detail in a minute.

The second pillar is the introduction of competitive leagues, with champions and relegated teams from the under 12 level onwards. This stage teaches the players a winning mentality and a sense of competitiveness. It is not merely about performances, but results are important as well.

The final pillar exists to enable any player to play at the highest level at any given age – particularly from the under 17s onwards. That begins with a real Bundesliga format for the under 17 and under 19 sides and ends with the introduction of B-sides into the highest amateur (4th division) and the lowest professional league (3rd division). But we will come to that again.

However, the best infrastructure is nothing without proper coaches. That is why only licensed (UEFA B license), well trained coaches have been put in charge of these training groups, regardless of whether it is under 18 or under 11 teams. For a youth development to be effective and efficient, you need to know the stages of development. You could listen to Arsène Wenger on this as well.

In general, there are three main stages for each player.

Stage 1 – age 6-14: here, it is all about the improvement of skill and technique. If at the end of that stage, you do not have any technical ability, you probably will not make as a professional footballer.

Stage 2 – age 14-16/17: here, the focus is on preparing the player physically. That does not necessarily mean sending him to the gym five times a week, but rather teaching him how to be physical. How to use the body to shield the ball, how to go into tackles etc,.

The final stage from 16/17 onwards would be the tactical education. Depending on the position, as well as individual cases and exceptions (for example players who suffered long term injuries), the final two stages could be interchanged. It is therefore extremely important that this structure has to be kept in mind and has to be implemented into the teaching methods and structures at basically every level. And with that, we are back at the training of under 11s to under 14s.

From 2002/3 onwards, the German football association started implementing football bases, led by professional coaches, all over the country, with the aim to allow every player access to the best coaching. Not every player in that age group is fortunate enough to play in the academy of a professional club.

Hence, if he is good enough, he will be allowed to train at such a DFB base once a week. The main idea of it is to ascertain if players that up to that point, who had not yet been scouted, are still able to improve and become the best player they can be.

On a more personal note, having been part of that program myself, I can confirm it is a vastly enriching experience to train in a group full of quality players and under professional guidance – even if it is just once a week. Success in these bases and subsequent improvement frequently leads to players being given chances or places in the elite schools or academies. To give you an overview of these centres: altogether, there are 366 bases at the moment, spread across the country.

DFB bases (for players that are not part of academies):

Elite schools (high level of education and football training):

Academies (youth system of professional clubs):

Finally, let us come back to the development of the under 17 and under 19 players. As mentioned, for each age group, there is a Bundesliga. Divided into three regional groups, teams play a standard season modus and in the end, the best four teams enter the semi-final.

However, this is fairly standard and can be found in most countries to a similar extent. There is a national cup as well, similarly to the FA Youth Cup. Again, fairly standard. The most drastic difference comes in the adult stages, with the introduction of B teams, or ‘II teams’ as they are called in Germany, into the 3rd or 4th division.

For instance, Dortmund’s II team is currently playing in the 3rd league while Bayern’s II team is part of the Regionalliga Bayern (4th division). All in all, a concept similar to Spain’s, where B sides are even allowed to play in the Segunda División, but completely different to the British approach.

To its credit, the Premier League introduced the under 21 Premier League last season. The league was seen as an improvement on the older format, with more games and fiercer competition. While that is certainly true, it can be argued that it still not as beneficial for the players as it could be.

After all, players still compete predominantly against players their age, players they have played against on numerous occasions and the frequency of games can be considered as inadequate as well. Since it is often argued that the best players have to play with people 2-3 years older than them, the under 21 league seems to be primarily beneficial for 17-18 year olds.

Clubs put so much energy and money into the development of a player, only to see him left in a difficult state once he reaches 19, 20 and has not yet broken into the first team.

To provide the necessary competition for youngsters, most top-flight clubs in England frequently turn to the option of loaning out their players. Usually a good number of players leave the club to gain experience in the lower English leagues or abroad – with more or less success.

With regard to Arsenal, over the last few years, players either were not a good fit for their new clubs system, were not good enough, strong enough or, typically for Arsenal, got injured. Coming back to Germany, German clubs and their players are able to gain an experience that is completely different from the English approach.

Here, you get games in highly competitive leagues against fully developed players; in the case of the 3rd division, even professionals. Furthermore, the players are still at your club, play the same or similar system to the one utilised by the first team, whereas in England, players either play in a under 21 league games against people their age or they get thrown into a lower league team that usually has little in common with the parent club. Nevertheless, you might argue that the best players are going straight into the first team anyway. Well, yes and no. This is pretty much connected with the standing of the club.

If it is a 2nd division team or a weaker Bundesliga side, then sure, the chances of involvement increase. With bigger sides, chances may be slim. It is the same in the Premier League. Youngsters of clubs like United, City or even Arsenal will not get any Premier League experience just for the sake of getting some minutes under their belt. Admittedly, during my ‘research’ I was curious as well as to how many big players of the Bundesliga were actually enrolled in their B sides.

The answer is, surprisingly many. For instance, when looking at the current German National Team, most of the big players, like Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Müller, Neuer, Klose or Gomez, spent a full season or two in their respective B team. Others, like Boateng, Mertesacker, Höwedes or Khedira got roughly half to a full season.

Only special players like Götze, Özil or Schürrle went straight into the Bundesliga squad – for obvious reasons you might say – but they are the exception to the rule. At the end of the day, there will not be one feature that sets programs apart from another, it will always be the whole system that matters. German football has tried to implement structures and coaching methods that work in all age groups and that improve the respective players. So far, the changes made can be considered a success and they will hopefully continue to do so in the future.