Jürgen Klopp has begun his Germany tenure with an unusually expansive 44-player selection split into two squads for four UEFA Nations League matches. The plan is designed to assess a wide pool quickly while preventing players from being required to take part in all four games of an extended international window.
Germany’s first group of 24 will play the Netherlands in Amsterdam on 24 September and Greece in Augsburg on 27 September. A second, separate group will then be used for the October games against Serbia and Greece. The approach enables Klopp to assess established internationals and younger options while reducing training and travel loads for players such as Florian Wirtz, who will report only for the later set of fixtures.
Klopp has included 16 uncapped players, not 11. They include Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, Freiburg defender Max Rosenfelder, Bayern Munich midfielder Lennart Karl, Hoffenheim midfielder Bambasé Conté, Borussia Dortmund midfielder Felix Nmecha, and Eintracht Frankfurt forward Younes Ebnoutalib. The size of the pool is notable because Germany can name only 23 players for each matchday squad; Klopp is effectively treating the window as a controlled trial across two groups.
Among the high-profile omissions are Leroy Sané, Leon Goretzka, Deniz Undav and Oliver Baumann. Klopp said Undav had not yet found his rhythm this season, while Sané has also been left out after an unsettled start to the campaign. The new coach has presented the exclusions as selection calls for this camp rather than permanent judgments on the players’ international futures.
The first group includes established figures such as Marc-André ter Stegen, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry, Nico Schlotterbeck, Jonathan Tah and Kai Havertz. Klopp’s opening game will also carry a visual link to German football history: the DFB has confirmed that Germany will wear a retro green version of its 1990 away shirt against the Netherlands, recalling the kit associated with the team’s World Cup-winning campaign in Italy.
Klopp’s selection is therefore less a conventional 44-man squad than two purpose-built camps. It gives him an immediate chance to expand the talent base, establish his preferred standards and styles, and see which newcomers can translate club form to the national-team environment before Germany’s next major tournament cycle.
