Germany leave Hummels, Goretzka out of preliminary Euro 2024 squad

The German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday announced the preliminary 27-player squad of the German national team for this year's UEFA European Championship at home. The names of Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels and Bayern Munich's Leon Goretzka were not on the list.

Meanwhile, manager Julian Nagelsmann recruited four goalkeepers: Alexander Nubel of VfB Stuttgart, Manuel Neuer of Bayern, Oliver Baumann of TSG Hoffenheim and Marc-Andre ter Stegen of Barcelona.

"We have nominated four goalkeepers and we will go with four to the tournament. Nubel has deserved the nomination," Nagelsmann said. "Why four keepers? You can have goalkeepers in training as well and Manuel [Neuer] does not always have to do it. We can control training and spread the load."

"That means 22 infield players. I can live with that very well. We can still do proper training with at least 20 infield players if some are missing," Nagelsmann added.

Most of the 27 players worked with Nagelsmann in the national team in the past seven months. Before Euro 2024 kicks off on June 14, he must drop one more player.

This preliminary squad includes three veterans who were with Germany when they won the FIFA World Cup title in 2014: Thomas Muller and Neuer of Bayern plus Toni Kroos of Real Madrid. That was also the only major international trophy the team won in recent years. They failed to advance to the knockout stage in the next two editions of the World Cup and went no further than to the Round of 16 in the last Euros in 2021.

"When you have this structure, which is still growing but fragile after our performances in March, bringing in new elements could trigger an implosion of that structure and you would have to start from scratch," Nagelsmann said.

Germany are in Group A with Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland at Euro 2024. They have won the tournament's title three times, the most among all teams. The last time they did so was in 1996.