Kicking off the brand new “Footballing Pipeline” series on The Football Project, Ryan Keaney is on hand to explain just how and why the German national team seems to have top quality young players coming out their ears. Everywhere you look in the Bundesliga there is a future international star plying his trade…

Euro 2000 was a complete and total disaster for the defending champions. Having walked away from Wembley in 1996 as victors, Germany at least planned to reach the knock-out stage of the tournament hosted in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Instead they finished rocked bottom of their group behind Portugal, Romania and England with just a single point from their three games and having scored a single goal. Thankfully for them, they didn’t have a single chance wasted or questionable refereeing decision that they could blame the disappointment on and then try to move on. German football was forced to look inwards at the structure of the league, the players in the league and the manner at which they nurtured young players into becoming Bundesliga stars. It was safe to say that they didn’t enjoy what they saw.

In the squad of 22 players that Erich Ribbeck took with him to the 2000 European Championships, there were only three players aged 25 or under. Germany was very much an ageing side, buoyed by the success of Euro ’96 there had been little done in the way of forward planning.

14 months after the tournament when England rocked up in Germany and beat them 5-1; the ideas that had been cultivated since Euro 2000 were quickly rubber stamped. It’s probably unfair to claim England’s mauling of the German national team made them what they are today; but it definitely helped to speed up the process.

In 2002, a plan was ratified and agreed upon with the sole intention of encouraging better development of young German footballers. Every team in the top two of the German Bundesliga are expected to run their own academy. If they don’t have or operate a facility, they won’t be granted a licence to promote them out of the 3.Liga.

More importantly, the DFB were very aware of the term “home grown player” and they were keen to make sure the academies weren’t pumping out talents for every nation other than their own. Each class or group of players welcomed into each academy must feature 12 players eligible to play for Germany.

The initiative, of course, didn’t cause overnight success and the German national team was forced to do what it could with its slightly aging pool of players. It was accepted that it was always going to be a lengthy process but with the 10,000 hours of applied practice now under their belts – the ideas are coming to fruition.

At the 2002 World Cup, Germany boasted seven players aged 25 or under. In South Africa last summer, that number was 15.

Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira, Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger – The players that football fans were suddenly fawning over after the tournament all seemed to be German. They announced them onto the world stage; but it’s what coming behind them that makes for potentially frightening viewing for their future Euro 2012 opponents.

At 19, Mario Götze is already a star for Borussia Dortmund and on his way to becoming a key player in the German national team. Last season he helped Dortmund take a huge step towards the Bundesliga title with an incredible individual goal against Hannover 96 and impressed many with a string of strong performances, characterised by his balance of speed, wonderous technical skill and superb creativity.

In August, making his first start for his country Götze starred in a 3-2 win over Brazil and could even feature in tandem with Ozil at the centre of Germany’s forward line. It is possible to wax lyrical about Götze’s potential but it’s probably best summed up by Bundesliga writer Terry Duffelen who said in regards to Euro 2012, “If he becomes the player he can in the next season, there is little point in anyone else showing up.”

Of course, there are those that would argue Götze isn’t actually deserving of the “next big thing” label in German football and it instead, belong to 22 year-old Marco Reus. A former youth team player at Dortmund, Reus was the reason that Borussia Mönchengladbach allowed Marko Marin to leave. In “Rolls Reus”, as he has been dubbed, it was thought that Gladbach possessed a more complete player and since Marin’s departure in 2009, Reus has gone from strength-to-strength.

He has two fine feet, is versatile enough to play across the attack and is a lot more of team player than Marin ever was; which is key for a side like Gladbach who aren’t likely to breeze through the majority of their games. At times, even their most creative players have to carry out defensive duties and Reus proves time and time again to be more than willing.

His contract also features one of the most interesting transfer clauses around. Marco has been generating interest from teams like Bayern Munich and Arsenal; but signing Reus away will cost €18 million this summer. Twelve months later, that figure drops to €15 million; and by another €3 million a year later. There is a real possibility Borussia Mönchengladbach could just hand onto their star player until after the World Cup in Brazil.

In 2008, the processes, ideas and plans of succession introduced six years previous started to bear fruit as Germany triumphed in the UEFA European Under-19 Football Championships and at the heart of the victory were the two Golden Players of the tournament. Lars Bender and his twin brother Sven Bender were the two stand-out performers for Germany in the competition and remain the only pairing to share an award that had previously been won by Fernando Torres and Alberto Aquilani; and more recently by Gael Kakuta.

The all-action midfield brothers were earmarked as future stars as long ago as 2006 when Lars was awarded the Fritz-Walter medal ahead of Marko Marin in second and his brother in third; and there of course remains the chance that they could line-up side-by-side in the engine room of the senior national team one day. Assuming of course, they can oust Bastian Schweinsteiger.

One day Miroslav Klose is going to hang up his goal scoring boots. The 33 year-old may not be in any mood to discuss his international future right now but when he does, the mantle of firing in goals will no doubt fall to Mario Gomez. The Bayern Munich frontman hasn’t quite been able to produce the feats that he reaches for his club team when he plays at international tournaments; and if he doesn’t start doing that soon, he’s could find himself sitting on the bench watching Bayer Leverkusen’s Andre Schurrle lead the line.

Schurrle, another to be named on a Fritz-Walter list as a youngster, broke through at Mainz scoring five goals and providing eight assists in the 2009/10 season. The return, from 33 appearances, actually put the youngster under a little pressure as his return wasn’t quite seen as good enough. He changed that last season and tripled his goal return from the same number of games.

Scoring 15 goals in a season meant he was never likely to stay at Mainz over the summer; and rather predictably the Champions League came calling. Bayer Leverkusen secured Schurrle’s services for €11 million and he has gone from strength-to-strength. The tall, strong centre forward made his debut for the German national team over a year ago; and has already go five goals to his name. Should he keep that up Gomez may be forced to find a regular place on the bench.

So successful have Germany’s training academies been, they are starting to produce talent in positions that they need not worry about internationally. Manuel Neuer is already amongst a select few of the world’s best goalkeepers but will have a fight on his hands to keep the shirt away from 19 year-old Bernd Leno, who has really just taken his opportunity with both hands.

The German youth international was sent on loan from Stuttgart to Bayer Leverkusen earlier this season as the Champions League club looked to replace injured Rene Adler with a short-term measure caused by a knee injury. Leno was thrown in at the deep and has gone on to exceed almost every expectation that could have been placed on him.

So much so that Leverkusen are trying to open talks to make Leno a permanent member of their squad and the player himself has been promoted ahead of his age group and into the German under-21 side.

In the under-21 squad, Leno finds himself as a teammate of Schalke’s Lewis Holtby and Julian Draxler as well as Borussia Dortmund’s apparent replacement for Nuri Sahin, Ilkay Gundogan. The trio are already regulars in the first team of their Bundesliga clubs; the only thing stopping them from growing into the senior squad could be the fact that Joachim Low’s most recent national squad of 23 featured no less than 17 players under 26.

There could soon be enough Germans to make two international teams.