There Germany he has been waiting for 28 years to win a European football championship. The last time was in 1996, when Oliver Bierhoff’s brace (complete with golden goal) shattered the Czech Republic dreams of Berger, Poborsky and Nedved. An eternity for a national team historically considered, together with Italy and France, the strongest on the continent.
This year, the Mannschaft will have a unique opportunity to break the spell and smile again after difficult years: the home European Championship arrives at the right time, with the reconstruction entrusted to Julian Nagelsmann and a team that, in the last few outings, has demonstrated to be ready to fight on equal terms against France, Spain and England, the three favourites.
To achieve this goal, Germany will first have to get through the group stage and beat Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland. If they managed to get to the end, Wirtz and his associates would receive a substantial prize from the Federation: as revealed yesterday by the BILDin case of triumph there is a bonus of 400,000 euros per player, which is more than 100,000 euros than what the 2014 world champions received.