Nagelsmann's World Cup squad with regional imbalance

Julian Nagelsmann's 26 World Cup players will represent the whole of Germany at the tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada. However, a look at the origins of the players in the national soccer team reveals a clear imbalance towards the south and west.

One from Brandenburg and two from Hamburg

While there is only one professional in Maximilian Beier, who was born in Brandenburg an der Havel in eastern Germany, seven players come from North Rhine-Westphalia and six each from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

The other six players are made up of two players from Hamburg (Jonathan Tah and Felix Nmecha), one from Bremen (Nick Woltemade), one from Lower Saxony (Deniz Undav), Antonio Rüdiger, who was born in the former West Berlin after reunification, and Waldemar Anton, who was born in Uzbekistan.

The regional divide also extends to the players' current teams. Seven FC Bayern Munich professionals make up the largest club block. Four players each play for VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund.

Only Kroos from the east for a long time

The trend towards the south and west is nothing new. In the four tournaments following the 2006 summer fairytale, Toni Kroos (Greifswald) was the only DFB player born in the east. At the home European Championship two years ago, however, Kroos, Robert Andrich (Potsdam) and Beier were three players born in East Germany in the Nagelsmann squad.

The most DFB players of East German origin since reunification were at Euro 2000, with Carsten Jancker, Ulf Kirsten, Jens Jeremies, Michael Ballack, Marko Rehmer and Thomas Linke making up half a dozen.