Klopp Dismisses Germany Role as Nagelsmann Stays After Paraguay Defeat

Germany’s World Cup exit always promised a reckoning. What it got, instead, was Jurgen Klopp drawing a thick red line through his own name.

In Boston, the four-time world champions fell in the round of 32 to Paraguay on penalties, 4-3 after a 1-1 draw, suffering their first-ever shootout defeat at a World Cup. Within minutes, attention turned from the chaos of the spot-kicks to the man not even in the dugout.

Klopp, now Red Bull’s head of global soccer and working as a pundit on MagentaTV, was pushed on the one question many in Germany have been asking for months: would he take the national team?

He pushed back hard.

“I haven’t thought about that yet,” he said, in quotes reported by Bild. A coach who has lived the pain of knockout football did not want to stand over another man’s open wound. “I’ve often been in that situation myself as a coach, where a big dream has been shattered.

“I understand that when people talk about the national coach, my name is mentioned. But it’s not the right moment to talk about it, especially not with me.

“I have a job that I really enjoy. And as far as I know, it’s not a part-time job. The fact is, Germany was eliminated today, and this is not the moment for me to think about Jurgen Klopp’s future.”

The message was clear: not now. Maybe not ever.

Germany crumble from the spot

Germany had arrived in the knockouts as group winners, finishing top of Group E despite a 2-1 defeat to Ecuador in their final group match. It looked like a platform. It became a trapdoor.

Against Paraguay in Boston, they were dragged into a street fight of a tie. Julio Enciso struck first, putting Germany on the back foot. Kai Havertz, again carrying a heavy creative load, pulled them level to make it 1-1 and drag the game into extra time.

The drama ramped up. Jonathan Tah thought he had written a different story, rising to head in what looked like a decisive extra-time goal. VAR erased it. The header was ruled out, and with it went Germany’s chance to kill the contest before the lottery.

The shootout turned brutal.

Havertz, who had already scored in normal time, missed from the spot. Nick Woltemade also failed to convert. Paraguay blinked too: Antonio Sanabria and Fabian Balbuena both squandered match-winning penalties, stretching the tension to breaking point.

Then came the final twist. Tah, already stung by the disallowed goal, missed the target in sudden death. Jose Canale stepped up and buried his kick, sending Paraguay into the last 16 and Germany out into another inquest.

Nagelsmann refuses to walk away

Julian Nagelsmann walked into the post-match press conference with his future already being debated outside the stadium. Inside, he drew his own line in the sand.

“I’m not one to run away,” he said. “It’s not the first time, but it’s been happening for a while now that we’ve been delivering tournaments like this and yes, there are certainly a few basic things that I don’t want to go into now.

“I’m not one of those people who sits here and says, ‘I’m resigning now, just because we’ve been eliminated’. If the DFB wants me to continue then I’ll continue and if they don’t want me to, then they can tell me that.”

No resignation. No grand gesture. Just a coach effectively placing the decision in the hands of the federation.

The contrast with the noise around Klopp was striking. One man being begged to come in. The other fighting to stay.

Havertz left shattered

On the pitch, the human cost was written across Kai Havertz’s face.

The Arsenal forward, playing in his second World Cup, stood in front of the cameras and sounded hollowed out. “I’m a little lost for words. This is my second World Cup and both times it came to nothing,” he said, in comments reported by FIFA.

“All I can do is apologise. I thought we didn’t play bad football at the last few tournaments, but something was always missing. And it was the same today.

“We have to take a hard look at ourselves, especially the players, and I’m leaving the coach out of that.”

It was as close as anyone came to admitting a deeper problem. Germany are not just losing games. They are losing tournaments in the same, familiar way.

Gakpo’s goal and grief

On another pitch, in another corner of this World Cup, football’s emotional extremes were laid bare.

Cody Gakpo scored for the Netherlands against Morocco in Guadalupe, then broke down in tears. The Liverpool forward had announced only days earlier, with his partner Noa van der Bij, that their son Elijah had died during pregnancy.

“With broken hearts, we share the devastating news that our baby boy passed away during pregnancy,” Van der Bij wrote in an Instagram post. “Thank you for your love and support. Elijah Raphael Gakpo, forever loved, forever our son.”

Gakpo echoed the pain in his own message: “This is an incredibly difficult time for our family. We kindly ask for our privacy and space. Thank you for your understanding.”

On the field, when Crysencio Summerville slipped him through, instinct took over. Gakpo seized on the ball and drove a low finish into the net. As it hit the back of the goal, the emotion finally burst. He sank to the turf, overcome, before his team-mates rushed to surround and hold him.

For a while, it looked like the story would end with his goal as the winner. Instead, Issa Diop levelled one minute into stoppage time, and Morocco snatched the tie on penalties, 3-2.

The result will live in Morocco’s history. The image that lingers, though, is Gakpo on his haunches, shoulders shaking, a father grieving in the middle of a World Cup pitch.

Germany, meanwhile, return home to another post-mortem, a coach under siege, and the one man the country keeps calling for insisting this is not his moment. How many more tournaments like this can a football nation of that stature endure before something finally gives?