On that gray November evening in Wolfsburg in 2021, when the national team under national coach Hansi Flick took the next step with a 9-0 win against Liechtenstein to win the future for German football, the German football past was omnipresent.

Michael Horeni

Football correspondent Europe in Berlin.

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Behind the gate, where the members of perhaps the staunchest fan association in the country, the so-called Fan Club National Team, set the tone, there was a poster to say goodbye to Flick's predecessor, which put the world champion coach Joachim Löw in a row with Sepp Herberger, Helmut Schön and Franz Beckenbauer posed, a sheet from 1936 to 2021.

At the farewell party of the day in Wolfsburg, over half a dozen world champions from 2014 appeared on the trellis for Löw: Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker, Sami Khedira, Benedikt Höwedes, Mats Hummels and Julian Draxler.

And on the pitch, where the present and the future were at stake, the two world champions Manuel Neuer and the two-time goalscorer Thomas Müller were there for the big win.

“A dream goal” from Baku

But even the former DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach, who has been avoiding the public since his resignation six years ago, appeared again in the stadium to celebrate the day for Löw. During the game he sat next to the former national coach on the main stand. In terms of protocol, the absence of his former captains, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Phillip Lahm, who is the tournament director of the EM 2024 in Germany in the service of the German Football Association (DFB), was noticeable under these circumstances.

On this evening, where the past and the future met at every turn, Lahm could have seen a few candidates who could play a role in German football in three years in their own country, above all the two Wolfsburg Ridle Baku and Lukas Nmecha. The 23-year-old Baku scored his first international goal in the third international match with a 7-0 win. A “dream goal”, as Flick praised.

The 21-year-old Nmecha, a modern striker who has been missing in the German game for years, made his debut in the second half.

National coach Hansi Flick, who has the ability to make the best of every situation, gave a new twist to the corona attacks that have been the focus of discussion about the national team in the past few days: “When you have new players want to see, you need a bit of space in the squad.

We got it now, of course, at the beginning of the week. "

"Everyone wants to be part of the team"

Flick said this without any irony.

Niklas Süle, who was infected with the virus, as well as Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Karim Adeyemi, who were classified as contact person 1 and also had to go into quarantine, were missing in Wolfsburg.

“We are happy about this quality that we have.

Everyone is there and wants to be part of this team, ”continued the national coach, looking at his squad and the players who were nominated afterwards in his analysis of the present.

“That of course makes it relatively easy for us coaches.

That's why it's important for us that everyone goes along with the way we want to play football.

And that's what we have. "

The fact that this feeling about the national team will be there again in autumn 2021, and that it will also be carried over to the spectators, is the most gratifying and astonishing change in a very short time.

Four months ago, Löw had already reached its limits with the national team at the European championship, and after a few bitter defeats he had already seen no future as a national coach for himself.

Löw had also handed over a national team to his successor, which, after three World Cup qualifiers in March 2021, was only third in Group J, behind leaders Armenia and North Macedonia. Flick and his players were the first team to qualify for the World Cup, before the last game this Sunday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for World Cup qualification and on RTL) in Armenia, the lead over the table runners-up North Macedonia is nine points. And with a 9-0 win against Liechtenstein, Flick set a new start record. Six victories in the first six games had not been achieved before any Reich or national coach, neither Herberger, Schön, Beckenbauer nor Löw.

However, you don't have to give too much to this statistical gimmick if your opponents Liechtenstein (9: 0 and 2: 0), Armenia (6: 0), Iceland (4: 0), Romania (2: 1) and North Macedonia (4 : 0). Especially since Liechtenstein was outnumbered early on Thursday due to an early dismissal after a violent foul on Leon Goretzka. But that much is certain in November 2021: The new national coach succeeded in turning the trend and the mood.

This could be felt in Wolfsburg from the first to the last minute in a stadium in which every ticket that was allowed to be sold due to the Corona situation (25,984) also found a buyer.

In any case, Flick was extremely satisfied.

“The atmosphere in the stadium was just fantastic.

The third home game we had - the team and the fans are a good combination.

When you score so many goals and are cheered on like that, that's great, of course, ”said the national coach.

"And of course I'm happy that Jogi saw nine goals when he left." And also what is possible again with the national team.