Das Reboot

‘Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.’ Gary Lineker 13 July 2014, World Cup Final, the last 10 minutes of extra time: Germany forward Mario Gotze, receiving a floated pass from his international teammate Andre Schurrle, jumps slightly to meet the ball and cushion it with his chest. Landing on his left foot, he takes a step with his right, swivels, and in one fluid motion, without the ball touching the ground, volleys it past the onrushing Argentine goalkeeper into the far corner of the net. The goal wins Germany the World Cup for the first time in almost thirty years. In the aftermath, Gotze looks dazed, unable to comprehend what he has done. In Das Reboot, Guardian journalist and television pundit Raphael Honigstein charts the return of German football from the international wilderness of the late nineteen-nineties to Gotze’s moment of genius and asks how did this come about? How did German football reinvent itself away from its efficient, but unappealing and defensively-minded past to the free-flowing, attack-minded football that was on display in 2014? The answer takes him from California to Stuttgart, from Munich to the Maracana, via Dortmund and Amsterdam. Packed with exclusive interviews with the key protagonists, Honigstein’s book lifts the lid on the secrets of German football’s success.