Joachim Löw has called up 14 members of his World Cup winning team to the Germany squad ahead of the European Championship in France. At a press conference at the French embassy at Pariser Platz in Berlin, the Germany head coach announced his preliminary squad for the tournament which gets under way next month (10th June-10th July). Among those selected are Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Höwedes, Mats Hummels, Shkodran Mustafi, Julian Draxler, Mario Götze,Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, André Schürrle and captain Bastian Schweinsteiger.
13 members of the current squad were involved in EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. Julian Brandt, Joshua Kimmich and Julian Weigl all make the squad for the first time. As well as World Goalkeeper of the Year Manuel Neuer, Bernd Leno and Marc-André ter Stegen have been called up to the squad.
Löw: "Good mixture of experience and youthful exuberance"
On the composition of the squad, Löw had this to say: "We have busied ourselves intensively in the past few months and weeks monitoring the players. Each individual has earned our respect, the same goes for those who we could not include. We have chosen these players because we are convinced that we have a good mixture of experience and youthful exuberance. Overall we have a squad filled with lots of quality, flexibility and versatility. These are good conditions for a successful EURO campaign."
The national team begin their training camp in Ascona on 24th May, as they start preparations for the European Championship. Only Toni Kroos and Lukas Podolski will be missing early on: Kroos has the Champions League final on 28th May in Milan and Podolski has the Turkish Cup final with Galatasaray on 26th. Both players will join the squad as soon as their club duties are over.
Just two friendlies against Slovakia and Hungary
As part of the training camp, Die Mannschaft face Slovakia on 29th May (17:45 CEST) in Augsburg, two days before Löw is required to submit his final 23-man squad to UEFA 31st May. The training camp ends on 4th June (18:00 CEST) against Hungary in Gelsenkirchen.
After that the player return home for two days to be with their families, before the squad travels to Evian on the 7th June, where the national team will be based throughout the tournament.
The tournament starts on 10th June (21:00 CEST) with the opening match between hosts France and Romania. Germany are in action against Ukraine on 12th June (21:00 CEST) in Lille, before they face neighbours Poland on 16th June (21:00 CEST) at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. The final group game takes place on 21st June (18:00 CEST) at the Prinzenpark-Stadion in Paris.