Germany, Italy and the Netherlands: Three Teams, Three New Managers

Add up the honours and these three countries have almost nothing in common. Germany have won the World Cup four times; Italy have won it four times; the Netherlands have reached three finals and won none, the last of them in 2010. What the three do share is a September 2026 that looks identical from the outside — a new head coach in place, a first squad list published, and a set of numbers that tells you how big a job the new man thinks he has. Germany called up 44 players across two lists. Italy called up 34, and 11 of them have never played a senior international. The Netherlands called up 26 and left out the man who has scored more goals for them than anyone else. Same month, three completely different bets.

Why have all three changed head coach?

Two of the three changes came out of the same stage of the same tournament. Germany and the Netherlands were both eliminated in the round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup, and both federations answered the same way: the coach left and a bigger name arrived. For Germany the exit meant a third tournament in a row without reaching the last 16, and it ended Julian Nagelsmann’s time in charge; Jürgen Klopp named his first squad as two separate lists, 24 players for the first pair of 2026-27 UEFA Nations League fixtures and 21 for the second, with Finn Dahmen the only man in both. That is 44 players in a single selection. It is not a squad; it is an audit. In the Netherlands the same exit ended Ronald Koeman’s second spell, and the federation went outside the country for the first time in 48 years, appointing Xavi Hernández on a four-year deal.

Italy’s change was not a reaction to one bad afternoon. It was a reaction to an absence. Italy did not qualify for the 2026 World Cup — a third successive World Cup missed — and Gennaro Gattuso, appointed during the qualifying campaign, left after a play-off defeat on penalties. In late July 2026 the federation brought back Roberto Mancini, the coach who won Euro 2020 and then walked away in 2023; Claudio Ranieri arrived with him as technical director. Mancini’s first list runs to 34 players: nine first-time call-ups and 11 never capped at senior level. Italy’s problem is not who to select — it is that there is little to select from.

Squad sizes and call-up counts are as reported for the September 2026 international window; caps and world rankings are as published in September 2026. Unit breakdowns (goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, forwards) differ between sources for all three squads, so only the list totals are given here.

Germany: what is actually inside Jürgen Klopp’s 44-player first squad?

Take the 44 apart and the shape of the job appears. Sixteen of the players called up were part of the 2026 World Cup squad, sixteen others could make a senior debut, and eleven are receiving a first call-up of any kind. More than a third of the group is meeting the national team for the first time in a single window — which is what happens when the man picking the team has only just walked through the door.

The list also closes one. Manuel Neuer is not in it, and neither is Antonio Rüdiger. Between them the two most-capped players of the previous squad carried 214 caps out of the 909 that squad had in total, and both absences were the players’ own decisions rather than the new coach’s. What is left is Joshua Kimmich, past 110 caps, wearing the armband and remaining the only man who could start in two different positions without surprising anybody.

The attacking core is unchanged. Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala are both 23, both already past ten goals for Germany, and both have spent years describing the same instinct — the ability to find each other between the lines. Everything Klopp does will run through them. The open question is who finishes what they create. Kai Havertz is the leading scorer in this group; Nick Woltemade, 24, is the only recognised centre-forward in it, with four goals in 12 caps. Germany have not had a settled answer to that question for a decade, and a 44-player list is how a new coach goes looking for one.

Florian WirtzAttacking midfieldGermany · 23The first name on any Germany team sheet for the next four years. At 23 he already has more than ten international goals, and the reason he matters more than the total is where he takes the ball: between the lines, where the next pass decides the move.Shop Florian Wirtz shirts →

Jamal MusialaAttacking midfieldGermany · 23The other half of the same instinct. Wirtz and Musiala are the two players Germany build their attack around, and the most interesting thing to watch in this squad is not either of them individually but how often they end up in the same ten metres of pitch.

Kai HavertzForwardGermany · 27Germany’s leading scorer and the man the whole argument runs through. If he turns creation into goals, the rebuild looks like continuity; if he does not, the 44-player list was never really about the midfield.Shop Kai Havertz shirts →

Germany2026-2027 Home Shirt (Wirtz 17)Fan edition · Home · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirtGermany2026-2027 Away Shirt (Havertz 7)Fan edition · Away · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirt

Italy: what does Roberto Mancini’s 34-man squad say about the rebuild?

Three numbers explain the Italian list better than any name in it. Three players have more than fifty caps: Gianluigi Donnarumma, the captain and first-choice goalkeeper, on 83; Nicolò Barella on 70; and Giovanni Di Lorenzo on 53. Only six of the squad that won Euro 2020 are still involved. And the entire 34-man group has scored 64 international goals between them, spread so thinly that the leading scorer, Moise Kean, has 13 of them — against the 35 that Luigi Riva, Italy’s record scorer, managed on his own in the 1960s and 1970s.

The other end of the list is where the rebuild actually is. Nine of the 34 are first-time call-ups and eleven have never played a senior international at all, among them an 18-year-old goalkeeper and a defender who moved for a reported €30 million before he had a cap. Three of the group were born in 2008, and every one of them was alive — barely — the last time Italy played at a World Cup, in 2014.

There are returns as well. Nicolò Fagioli and Nicolò Zaniolo are back for the first time in almost two years, and Rolando Mandragora for the first time since 2021. One name is not back: Federico Chiesa has not played for Italy since Euro 2024. Nor is the centre-forward question settled: Francesco Pio Esposito, 21, has five goals in nine caps and is the first choice, while his brother Sebastiano is in the same list — which tells you how thin the options are.

Gianluigi DonnarummaGoalkeeper (captain)Italy · 27The most-capped and most experienced player Italy have, and the captain in a squad where only three men are past fifty caps. His 83 caps are already the anchor of the list; the interesting thing is how much of the tournament record he ends up carrying alone.

Alessandro BastoniCentre-backItaly · 27The defender who decides how high Italy can play. At 27 he is in his prime, and with an unfamiliar back line around him he is the one player who has to make a young team look organised rather than merely energetic.Shop Alessandro Bastoni shirts →

Nicolò BarellaCentral midfieldItaly · 29Seventy caps of running in a squad that has very little of it. Barella is the bridge between the group that won Euro 2020 and a list where eleven players have never been capped — and the one who sets the tempo the rest of them follow.Shop Nicolò Barella shirts →

Italy2026-2027 Home Shirt (Barella 18)Fan edition · Home · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirtItaly2026-2027 Away Shirt (Chiesa 14)Fan edition · Away · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirt

Netherlands: what did Xavi Hernández change in his first 26-man squad?

Start with the appointment, because nothing like it has happened in Dutch football for half a century. Xavi Hernández is the first foreign head coach of the Netherlands in 48 years — since the Austrian Ernst Happel, whose team reached the 1978 World Cup final. He signed a four-year contract covering Euro 2028 and the 2030 World Cup, and what he said on arrival was that he wanted the possession-based attacking football the country is known for. Then he picked a squad that matched the sentence.

The clearest break is the omission. Memphis Depay, the Netherlands’ all-time leading scorer on 55 goals, is not in the 26, and he has not scored for the national team since late 2025. Wout Weghorst, the second-most experienced forward in the group, is out too; Frenkie de Jong is out injured. Virgil van Dijk, who had suggested he might stop playing international football after the World Cup, is in — and stays captain. Thirteen of the 26 play in England and only three play at home in the Netherlands, so this is not a reset forced by a weak talent pool. It is one made at the edges: Ruben van Bommel, the son of Mark van Bommel, has a first call-up; Gjivai Zechiël has another after scoring five goals in six league games this season; Joey Veerman is back after more than two years away; and Jeremie Frimpong, cut from the World Cup squad, is recalled.

What Xavi inherits is a country that has produced attacking football for fifty years and won one major tournament in that time, Euro 1988. Three World Cup finals have been lost, more than any nation that has never won the competition. The plan he has described is to attack the way the country expects and, for once, to finish the job. His first squad is the first piece of evidence — and the part of it that matters most is who is no longer in it.

Virgil van DijkCentre-back (captain)Netherlands · 35He thought about stopping after the World Cup and decided to carry on when the new coach flew to see him. On 96 caps and closing on a hundred, he is both the captain and the insurance policy behind a forward line that has just been rebuilt.

Cody GakpoForwardNetherlands · 27The man who inherits Depay’s minutes. He is 27, he has been a fixture of the national team since 2022, and with the record scorer gone the Dutch attack stops being a plan built around one player and becomes a system somebody has to lead.Shop Cody Gakpo shirts →

Tijjani ReijndersCentral midfieldNetherlands · 28The progressive passer in the middle, and the player Xavi’s possession plan needs most. If the Netherlands look like the team the coach has described rather than the one that lost in the round of 32, Reijnders is usually why.Shop Tijjani Reijnders shirts →

Netherlands2026-2027 Home Shirt (Gakpo 11)Fan edition · Home · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirtNetherlands2026-2027 Away Shirt (Virgil 4)Fan edition · Away · 2026-27 · International · MenView this shirt

The two widest nets in European football, thrown for different reasons.

Ages are as of September 2026 and heights are as listed on national team roster pages in the same month. Watch points are ours, based on how each squad is built rather than on results.

Which of the three shirts should you buy?

All three countries sell the same four things, so the decision is really about how you watch: the name at the centre of the new cycle, the lighter match cut, the era rather than the season, or a shirt for somebody else.

Soccer shirts are the slimmest cut we sell. If you normally wear a football or baseball jersey (roomy) or a hockey jersey (the loosest fit in the shop), take one size up, and between two sizes always take the larger one. Chest, waist and length charts are on our size guide.

1. You want the name the new cycle runs through. Start with the Germany home shirt with Wirtz 17, the Italy home shirt with Barella 18, or the Netherlands home shirt with Gakpo 11. All three are fan version / replica cuts carrying the current squad number — the version that will still make sense in two years.

2. You want the lighter, closer match cut. Each of those designs also comes as a player-version shirt: same look, thinner perforated fabric and an athletic body. Sizing runs closer than anything else we sell, so take one size up rather than assuming your usual label carries over — the full chest, waist and length charts are on our size guide.

3. You want the era, not the season. Buy the shirt that carries a moment instead of a year: Germany’s archive runs from the 1984 West Germany retro home shirt, in Rummenigge 11, forward through the bringback designs of 1990, 1994, 2006 and 2014, with the 1994 home bringback shirt the cleanest of the middle years; the Netherlands’ 1983 retro shirt, in Gullit 10, is the other end of the same idea; and Italy’s archive runs from 1970s fashion jerseys to recent replica designs. The wider set of all three is in the retro and throwback collections.

West Germany · RetroWest Germany 1984 Retro Home Shirt (Rummenigge 11)Fan edition · Home · 1984 · International · MenView this shirtNetherlands · Retro1983 Home Retro Shirt (GULLIT 10)Fan edition · Home · 1983 · International · MenView this shirt

4. You are buying for someone else, or for a smaller frame. Youth sizes run to roughly 5'6" (168 cm) and a 34–36" chest, which covers most of the kids shirts in all three ranges; above that you move to a men’s S. Women’s cuts are tapered, so if you want the classic oversized look, order a men’s size instead. And if the name is the point, build it yourself on our custom jersey page — nameplates take up to 12 characters (A–Z, 0–9, spaces and hyphens), are produced in 5–7 business days plus 1–3 days of packing, and are final sale unless they arrive damaged or printed incorrectly.

Two more specific routes, if you already know which half of each spine you want: Germany’s home shirt with Musiala 10, and Italy’s home shirt with Bastoni 21.

Orders leave our warehouse in 1–3 business days and arrive 7–15 business days later with tracking, free worldwide over $57. Below that threshold shipping starts at $5 and never exceeds $50 on a single order, so ordering two shirts together usually costs less than ordering them one at a time. Returns run to 30 days with no restocking fee, and the first size swap is free.

If you take one thing from this guide, take the order of the numbers. A 44-player first list is a coach admitting he does not yet know his team. A 34-player list with 11 uncapped players is a federation with no choice about rebuilding. A 26-player list with the record scorer removed is a coach choosing to start again. Three of Europe’s biggest jobs, three first squads — and only the third of them was picked freely.

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