Audio By Carbonatix
Germany coach Joachim Loew is not planning to call up world champions Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, and Thomas Mueller any longer, saying the team needs to look to the future.
The Bayern Munich trio were part of the 2014 World Cup-winning team but the Germans crashed out of the 2018 World Cup in the group stage, their earliest exit in 80 years.
All three have also struggled for form this season.
"I thank Mats, Jerome and Thomas for the many successful, extraordinary and unique years we shared," Loew told the best-selling Bild newspaper on Tuesday.
"But in the national team it is now all about laying the foundations for the future. We want to give the team a new face. I am convinced that this is the right step."
Loew said he had travelled to Munich to inform the players.
With close to 250 internationals between them, Hummels (70 caps), Mueller (100) and Boateng (76) were part of the same generation.
Hummels and Boateng, both 30, played together in the 2009 Under-21 European championship triumph as Germany started to reap the first rewards of a major and sustained investment in youth players that had started seven years earlier.
They all graduated to the senior team and took part in the 2010 World Cup where Germany's youngest tournament team in 76 years reached the semi-finals with an exciting run that included wins over England and Argentina.
Mueller, 29, has scored 10 goals at World Cups, winning the golden boot in 2010. He was the second-top scorer four years later with another five goals.
The trio's international cycle was complete when Germany were crowned world champions in 2014, having also clinched an extraordinary 7-1 victory against Brazil in the last four.
"Thomas, Mats, and Jerome have achieved a lot until now for German football," Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff told Bild.
"They will continue to do so for their club. I continue to feel very connected to them and am thankful for the time we spent together in the national team."
Latest Stories
-
Speaker’s surprise about Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill passage vindicates Minority’s concerns – Ntim Fordjour
1 hour -
US to drastically slash the number of embassies in Africa that can process visas
1 hour -
Qwasi Blay returns home to collaborate with Kyekyeku on new film project
1 hour -
No room for laundering: Subin-Akwaboso Bank CEO plots rise to the top
2 hours -
Inusah Fuseini defends NDC Council of Elders’ intervention to safeguard party unity
2 hours -
Reimagining ECOWAS leadership for a fragmented and uncertain West Africa
2 hours -
Bank of Ghana considering sale of new $260M Headquarters – Sources
2 hours -
World Hunger Day: ‘The end of hunger is in our own hands’
3 hours -
Pupils sent home as teachers’ strike disrupts learning in 80 Tarkwa schools
3 hours -
There are no divisions in NDC – Godwin Ako Gunn
3 hours -
What Is Wrong with Us: Why we keep chasing payslips while ignoring the payrolls that create them
3 hours -
Patoranking teams up with Ruger for new afro-dancehall single ‘Shake That’
3 hours -
Africa’s climate negotiators put health at the centre of climate action ahead of Bonn talks
3 hours -
Mahama’s involvement in Council of Elders’ directive signals concern over NDC divisions – Haruna Mohammed
3 hours -
Barekese youth threaten dump site blockade over alleged denial of 24-hour market
3 hours