Julian Nagelsmann has named his 26-man Germany squad for the World Cup.Nagelsmann has sprung a major surprise, selecting Manuel Neuer for the tournament, despite the Bayern Munich goalkeeper, now 40, retiring from international duty in 2024 and pledging as recently as last month that he would not be returning.Leroy Sane is included, despite his historic indifferent form for the national team, while there are also call ups for Premier League players Florian Wirtz, Nick Woltemade, Kai Havertz, Pascal Gross and Malick Thiaw.Leeds United’s Anton Stach, who was part of the squad during the recent March internationals, has been omitted.Germany will be hoping for a far stronger showing this summer. Having won the last of their World Cups in 2014, they were eliminated in the group stage in 2018 and 2022.They will begin their tournament against Curacao in Houston on June 14, before facing Ivory Coast (Toronto, June 20) and Ecuador (New Jersey, June 25) to complete their fixtures in Group E.Are there any surprise omissions?Niclas Fullkrug’s form has been in sharp decline since leaving Borussia Dortmund for West Ham — via a difficult loan with AC Milan — so his omission is no surprise.Leaving Stuttgart’s Chris Fuhrich out is contentious. Fuhrich is a stylish winger who has had a good season in the Bundesliga and who possesses an intricate, out-to-in threat that Germany do not otherwise possess, so that might be Nagelsmann’s biggest and least popular call.Robert Andrich has proven himself a versatile and useful squad member over the last few years and Nagelsmann was expected to select him as a security option, adding extra cover to his midfield and defence, but he has not made it either.Nor is there room for Karim Adeyemi. The Borussia Dortmund forward has been struggling with injury in recent weeks, but — even had he not been — it’s questionable whether his form this season would really have warranted a call-up.