Read for 5 minutesUpdated: June 13, 2026 08:00 PM IST
They call him Bambi. Not for delicacy, but for the way he carries the ball in traffic, the particular cleanliness of those movements. Jamal Musiyala He had 40 Germany caps and was touted as the next Lionel Messi before he turned 20. Then on July 5 last year, Gianluigi Donnarumma went for a loose ball and collided with him. Musia fell screaming. He fractured his fibula, dislocated his ankle. Donnarumma held his head in his hands.
In the months that followed, Nagelsmann visited him at home. No phone calls. He went in person to say that there was no rush. “It will be good if I am back in top form at the end of the season and at the World Cup,” Musiala said. he did Scored against Finland last month, completed 90 minutes for first time since March, started June 6 against United States. Bambi is back. The World Cup will answer the question of whether the old Bambi is back.
Germany arrived with two consecutive group-stage exits and a goalkeeping controversy. Manuel Neuer retired after Euro 2024, saying his squad had made him at peace. Then came Bayern against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu: nine saves, man of the match, a performance that reminded everyone why he had been their number one for 14 years. Nagelsmann picked up the phone. Oliver Baumann, who had recently said he would start the World Cup, found out differently when the squad was announced. Sami Khedira went on television to defend him: “We’re killing Olli Baumann right now. We’re killing him in the media.” Forty years, fifth World Cup. Make some decisions yourself.
Lothar Matthaus and Thomas Müller are already at loggerheads. Müller has brought in Musia to give the tired legs a crack. Mathos accused him of destabilizing the team. The debate does not stop there. Joshua Kimmich’s best position remains a national conversation. The centre-back pairing is unstable. The decade-long debate about why Germany didn’t produce an out-and-out striker grew louder every year, with Miroslav Klose growing louder every year. What was once a staple of the tournament, a team that grew taller as the tournament progressed, is now lost. Philipp Lahm called for a return to archetypes. Nagelsmann plays with what he has.
What lies ahead is truly exciting. The quartet of Kai Havertz, Florian Wirtz, Musiala and Leroy Sane can protect the skin in different ways: they exchange, form, compress. Nagelsmann created a 4-2-3-1 that morphed into a 3-6-1, an xG-popping juggernaut that narrowly lost out to eventual winners Spain at Euro 2024. It hasn’t been smooth sailing since. Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gundogan retired. Wirtz struggled with form at Liverpool. Serge Gnabry is out with an injury.
What remains is a strong offensive front and a hastily assembled core. Take out Kimmich and Jonathan Tah and what’s left in midfield and defense is mediocre. Nico Schlotterbeck, highly rated by Nagelsmann, has started eleven of Dortmund’s fifteen clean-sheet matches and has just returned from injury. These machines often break down.
The pattern over the last four years is clear. Germany beat the teams below them. At best, Japan and Spain at Qatar, Spain again at Euro 2024, France and Portugal in the Nations League, the gap in individual quality outside the front four is quickly apparent. Group E, along with Curacao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador, should allow them to progress. That is not the question. The question is about ceiling.
Matthias Sammer made his prediction on patience: “I’m absolutely convinced that Musia will improve significantly as the tournament unfolds. Maybe not the first game, maybe the second. Then comes the knockout stages and suddenly he explodes.”
Old Germany didn’t need one player to explode. The system exploded. The tourneymanship grew with each match, reaching the finals as a different team than those played in the group stage. That version of Germany didn’t depend on one player finding himself in real time.
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This one does. Nagelsmann visited Musia at home and told him there was no rush. Musiala came back anyway, scored against Finland, started against the United States, suited up in Winston-Salem.
Germany opens on Sunday. Bambi is in the building. Now he has to run.