{"id":669874,"date":"2026-05-21T08:11:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=669874"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:37:42","slug":"germany-squad-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/21\/germany-squad-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Julian Nagelsmann Announces 26 Man Squad for Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Germany squad announcement is now official, with Julian Nagelsmann including a sensational return for a talismanic figure in German football, two years on from their retirement, and a number of head-turning exclusions.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the majority of leagues around the world coming to an end, that can only mean one thing &#8211; The 2026 World Cup is just around the corner. Set to kick off on June 11th, international managers will have all the data they need to make their decisions and name their final 26-man squads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/18\/brazil-world-cup-squad\/\" target=\"_self\">The Brazil World Cup Squad Announcement<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Nagelsmann Turns Heads with Germany Squad Announcement<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Sensational Return for Germany Legend<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bayern Munich\u2019s goalkeeper,<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.bundesliga.com\/en\/bundesliga\/news\/manuel-neuer-germany-recall-world-cup-2026-importance-nagelsmann-37384\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Manuel Neuer, is set to return to international football<\/a>, two years after retiring. After an unsuccessful European Championship campaign in 2024, Neuer hung up his gloves to focus on club football; however, it was announced that he will be dusting off the gloves for one last tournament at age 40.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neuer will be taking part in his fifth World Cup, first competing at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and most famously, playing a prominent role in Germany\u2019s 2014 World Cup victory, where he kept a clean sheet in the final against Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is also a surprise call-up for former Manchester City man Leroy Sane. The winger has been playing for Galatasaray this season, notching seven goals in 28 league games; however, his form for the international side has been inconsistent over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Surprise Absentees<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Borussia Dortmund forward Karim Adeyemi has missed out on Nagelsmann\u2019s 26-man squad after a lacklustre season. The former Bayern Munich man has scored just six league goals this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leeds United\u2019s Anton Stach was included in the recent March internationals; however, he won\u2019t be on the plane to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entertaining winger Chris Fuhrich, who plays his club football for Stuttgart, is an interesting player to leave out. He could have come off the bench and made a difference and offered the team a different look from the bench; however, it will be left to Leroy Sane to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Serge Gnabry\u2019s season-ending injury suffered in the Champions League forced Nagelsmann\u2019s hand in leaving him at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Germans will play two warm-up games before kicking off their campaign against Curacao in Houston on June 14th.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/11\/the-cost-of-the-world-cup-for-england-fans\/\" target=\"_self\">The True Cost of the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Germany Squad Announcement &#8211; World Cup 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Goalkeepers:<\/strong> Manuel Neuer, Oliver Baumann, Alexander Nubel<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Defenders:<\/strong> Waldemar Anton, Nathaniel Brown, Joshua Kimmich (captain), David Raum, Antonio Rudiger (vice-captain), Nico Schlotterbeck, Jonathan Tah, Malick Thiaw<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Midfielders:<\/strong> Nadiem Amiri, Leon Goretzka, Pascal Gross, Jamie Leweling, Lennart Karl, Jamal Musiala, Felix Nmecha, Alexander Pavlovic, Angelo Stiller, Florian Wirtz<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Forwards:<\/strong> Maximilian Beier, Kai Havertz, Leroy Sane, Denis Undav, Nick Woltemade<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image courtesy of IMAGO \/ Sch\u00fcler<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Germany squad announcement is now official, with Julian Nagelsmann including a sensational return for a talismanic figure in German football, two years on from their retirement, and a number of head-turning exclusions. With the majority of leagues around the world coming to an end, that can only mean one thing &#8211; The 2026 World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5755,"featured_media":669878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161,30,2132],"tags":[798,351],"class_list":["post-669874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-football","category-news","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-germany"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669880,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669874\/revisions\/669880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}