Team 2006
| Association |
German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund — DFB) |
|---|---|
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) |
| Head coach | Inactive |
| Most caps | Ronald Worm (12) |
| Top scorer | Manfred Burgsmüller (8) |
| FIFA code | GER |
Germany B (or Germany A2) is a secondary team for the national football team of Germany, used to try out and develop players for potential inclusion in the first team. The team - which has not been active since 2006 - can play against other nations' B-teams, or against full national teams, but its matches are not considered full internationals. In its last incarnation the team was named Team 2006, as a development team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which was to be hosted in Germany.
In 2000, when Germany was selected to host the World Cup, the national team was in decline - the squad was ageing, with little in the way of emerging talent. After the team was knocked out in the first round of Euro 2000, the German Football Association decided to form 'Team 2006' - a development team for young players, with the hope of producing a squad that could perform at the 2006 World Cup. The team played ten fixtures between 2002 and 2005, with four wins, four draws and two defeats.
Ultimately, only four players from Team 2006 were part of the World Cup squad - Tim Borowski, Arne Friedrich, Mike Hanke and Timo Hildebrand. However, Manuel Friedrich, Alexander Madlung, Clemens Fritz, Stefan Kießling, Simon Rolfes, Robert Enke, Patrick Helmes, Mario Gómez and Roman Weidenfeller went on to play full internationals, as did Daniel Bierofka, Marco Engelhardt, Fabian Ernst, Frank Fahrenhorst, Ingo Hertzsch, Tobias Rau, Andreas Hinkel and Kevin Kurányi, who had already been capped before their Team 2006 debuts.
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