Nagelsmann does not plan to leave after Germany's latest collapse: the decision now passes to the DFB
Julian Nagelsmann does not intend to step down as Germany head coach on his own after his national team ended its 2026 World Cup campaign already in the round of 32. Germany was eliminated by Paraguay on June 29 at Boston Stadium after a penalty shootout, even though it entered the match as the clear favorite and as the winner of its group. According to FIFA's official match centre, the duel ended 1:1 after 120 minutes, and Paraguay won the shootout 4:3. The defeat immediately opened the question of responsibility, because this was yet another major tournament in which the four-time world champion did not come anywhere close to the final stages. Nagelsmann, however, said after the match that he is not a person who runs away from problems and that he is ready to continue the job if the German Football Association, the DFB, continues to place its trust in him.
Shock in Boston after 120 minutes and penalties
The match against Paraguay further sharpened the debate about the direction of the German national team because Germany entered the knockout phase with the expectation that reaching the round of 16 was the minimum. According to FIFA's data, Paraguay took the lead in the 42nd minute through a goal by Julio Enciso, and Kai Havertz equalized in the 54th minute. The score did not change even after extra time, so the winner was decided by penalties, in which Paraguay was calmer and more precise. The Associated Press agency reported that José Canale scored the decisive penalty in the shootout, while goalkeeper Orlando Gill played a key role with saves that opened Paraguay's path to the next round. For Germany, it was a defeat that was especially painful because it came in a discipline in which its national team had held almost mythical status for decades.
According to the official data of the DFB's data centre, the match was listed as a round-of-32 game at the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada, with the final result Germany – Paraguay 3:4 after penalties. The same record confirms that Paraguay led 1:0 after the first half, while the score was 1:1 after 90 and after 120 minutes. This meant Germany ended the tournament earlier than expected, while Paraguay achieved one of the most notable victories of the competition so far. In the new World Cup format, in which the tournament is being played with 48 national teams and an additional knockout round for the first time, elimination in the round of 32 has a different formal name from earlier group-stage exits, but the sporting impression for Germany remains just as heavy. A team that for generations was measured exclusively by final stages and titles now once again has to explain why it was stopped long before the decisive matches.
Nagelsmann: I am ready to continue if the association wants that
After the match, Nagelsmann tried to take on the politically most sensitive part of the response without directly submitting his resignation. According to The Guardian's report, the Germany head coach said he is not someone who runs away, adding that he knows how the football industry works and that he understands many will call for his departure. At the same time, he stressed that he would like to continue if the DFB believes that is the right path. Such wording leaves room for the Association's decision, but also clearly shows that Nagelsmann does not want to be the one who cuts short his mandate himself. In practice, this means that the debate will very quickly move from the dressing room and the conference room to the top of the DFB, where the contract, results, state of the team and public mood will all have to be weighed.
His position is not simple because it is not only one match that is being assessed, but the entire cycle and the broader picture of German football. In January 2025, the DFB announced that Nagelsmann had extended his contract until the 2028 European Championship, with which the Association at the time sent a message of continuity and trust. The extension made sense at a moment when it wanted to avoid the impression of a temporary solution and give the head coach enough room to develop a new generation. After the elimination by Paraguay, the same contract becomes both a protective framework and a subject of debate: the DFB can argue that the project was conceived for the long term, but it will have to explain why an unsuccessful World Cup should be treated as an obstacle to be survived rather than as proof that a new beginning is needed. For that reason, Nagelsmann's future no longer depends only on his will, but on the assessment of whether his leadership can still convincingly bring together the team, the Association and the public.
Another tournament below German standards
This defeat resonates strongly because it fits into a longer series of German disappointments at World Cups after the title won in 2014. In its report, Associated Press recalled that Germany, the four-time world champion, once again ended its World Cup campaign early, after having already lost part of the aura of a national team that almost automatically goes deep into the tournament in previous cycles. Germany recovered enough in the 2026 group stage to win first place, but the final impression was changed by the defeat to Ecuador in the last round and then elimination by Paraguay. According to earlier information from the DFB, Paraguay entered the knockout phase as one of the eight best third-placed teams, while Germany entered the match as group winner. It is precisely that contrast that increases the weight of the result: the team that had the more favorable starting position failed to turn it into progress.
For Nagelsmann, it is particularly uncomfortable that the question of the team's play once again imposed itself just as strongly as the question of the result. During the tournament, Germany showed parts of its attacking potential, but against Paraguay it failed enough times to turn control of the match into a clear advantage on the scoreboard. According to reports from international media, Paraguay was patient, solid and prepared for long stretches without the ball, while Germany struggled to find solutions against an organized defense. Such defeats often produce stronger consequences than defeats against nominally equal or stronger opponents, because they open the question of tactical adaptability, mental resilience and player selection in key moments. If the DFB decides to keep Nagelsmann, a clearer explanation will be expected from him on how the team will break down closed opponents in the future and how it will avoid repeating a pattern in which the impression of control does not bring a result.
Paraguay used the new format and achieved a historic breakthrough
Paraguay's victory also has its own sporting weight, outside the German crisis. According to FIFA's format rules for the 2026 World Cup, the tournament is played with 48 national teams in 12 groups of four teams, with the two best national teams from each group and the eight best third-placed teams advancing. Paraguay stayed in the tournament through exactly that path and then knocked out one of the most successful participants in World Cup history in the knockout round. In its match preview, the DFB recalled that this was the second World Cup meeting between Germany and Paraguay, after Germany celebrated a 1:0 win in the round of 16 in 2002. Twenty-four years later, Paraguay turned the story in its favor in a different format and in a different football context.
Associated Press described the victory as the biggest surprise of the tournament up to that point, emphasizing that Paraguay, a national team from a country surrounded by South American football powers, withstood the pressure and made use of the shootout. Such a result does not change only Germany's plans, but also the dynamics of the tournament, because it shows that the expanded format can bring new pathways to national teams that had less room for error in the old system. After advancing, Paraguay also gained strong symbolic momentum at home; international media reported that President Santiago Peña declared a public holiday after the victory. That reaction shows how much the success was understood as a national sporting event, but also how strong the contrast is: for one side, the evening became a historic celebration, and for the other, another painful point in post-World Cup analysis.
The DFB must decide whether continuity is still a convincing answer
The key question after the defeat is not only whether Nagelsmann will stay, but what his staying should mean. If the DFB concludes that continuity is the best path, such a decision will not be able to be presented only as respect for the contract until 2028. The Association will have to offer a football explanation: what worked, what did not, what changes are needed in the coaching staff, how younger players will be developed and who the leaders of the next cycle are. If it decides on a dismissal, the DFB will in turn acknowledge that the project that was supposed to last until Euro 2028 had already lost credibility at the 2026 World Cup. In both cases, the decision will be important for the reputation of the Association as much as for the head coach himself.
Nagelsmann came to the Germany national team with the reputation of one of Europe's most modern coaches, an expert who emphasizes intensity, structure and tactical flexibility. But international football demands a different kind of credibility from club work: there is less time for training, more pressure on choosing simple solutions, and every wrong move at a major tournament gains national and international weight. That is precisely why the DFB must now assess not only coaching ideas, but also the ability to build a clear tournament team. The defeat by Paraguay does not have to automatically mean the end of the mandate, but it can hardly pass without concrete consequences. Nagelsmann has said that he is not running away; the next move belongs to the Association, which must decide whether it wants to keep him on the same path or open a completely new phase.
Germany between the contract, public pressure and the next cycle
The debate about Nagelsmann will unfold in an atmosphere in which Germany can no longer count on the old assumption that the quality of the system will by itself turn into results at major tournaments. The contract until 2028 provides formal stability, but after an exit like this, stability alone is not a sufficient argument. According to the available information, the head coach already made it clear after the match that he wanted to steer the conversation toward changes and continued work, while media reports emphasize that he left the decision to the DFB. That is a logical move for a coach who wants to retain authority, but also an acknowledgment that the choice is no longer only personal. German football now enters a period in which every statement by the Association's leaders, every analysis by the coaching staff and every reaction from the players will be read as a signal about the direction of the decision.
For the wider football public, the case is also interesting because it shows how quickly the weight of a single result changes. Before the match against Paraguay, Germany could claim that it had passed the group and had an opportunity to build confidence through the knockout phase. After the penalties in Boston, the same tournament will be remembered as yet another attempt at renewal that ended before it had actually begun. Nagelsmann does not want to leave on his own initiative, but by doing so he has not closed the question of his future. He has only moved it to where, after defeats like this, it must be resolved: in the Association's offices, in professional analysis and in the assessment of whether Germany, with the same head coach, can once again become a national team that at major competitions does not merely survive pressure, but imposes it on others.
Sources:
- FIFA – official match centre Germany – Paraguay, result, scorers, shootout and basic match data (link)
- DFB Datencenter – official record of the Germany – Paraguay match at the 2026 World Cup (link)
- DFB – announcement on the extension of Julian Nagelsmann's contract until the 2028 European Championship (link)
- FIFA – explanation of the 2026 World Cup format with 48 national teams and the round of 32 (link)
- The Guardian – report on Nagelsmann's statements after Germany's elimination by Paraguay (link)
- Associated Press – match report, details about the shootout, Paraguay and reactions after the victory (link)