As part of our Language of Soccer World Cup series, The Athletic is speaking to supporters of all 48 nations competing at the 2026 edition to capture their unique football culture, distilled into a single phrase. You can read the articles in one place here.Vollig losgelost — Completely detached“Patriotism in Germany is complicated. When I was younger, you didn’t really see the country’s flag very often — at least not until the World Cup in 2006 (when they were the host nation).”Thomas has some wariness. Germany’s political situation is fractious. There are even some contrasting perspectives in his own family, he explains, so he prefers that we don’t use his full name.But national unity still fascinates him.“In 2006, I probably wasn’t old enough to really understand it — I was still a teenager, and I didn’t really have anything to compare it to — but you saw the colours everywhere. I remember going out after the penalty shootout against Argentina (to put Germany in the semi-finals) and seeing cars drive by with the tiny flags stuck on their windows.A German fan drives his car through Berlin during the 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Argentina (Sebastian Willnow/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)“That was really the first time, and I know this sounds stupid, but being German felt… cool?”Twenty years is a long time.Germany have not won the World Cup since 2014. And in those two subsequent tournaments, they suffered humiliating group-stage exits, which — combined with various political sagas and scandals — left the national team and its public in an awkward embrace. Getting to the last eight in a home European Championship in 2024 (where they took eventual winners Spain to extra time before losing 2-1) went a long way to repairing that relationship, but a singular supporter identity is hard to pin down.Malte Thoben is the president of Across The Pitch, a national-team fan club comprising German students currently living in the United States.“As a national team, we don’t have chants,” he tells The Athletic. “We really just borrow from club teams. It’s not like England. We don’t really have ‘It’s Coming Home’ (Three Lions). Nothing like that. “In a way, albeit ironically, Three Lions — written by British comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner ahead of Euro ’96 — became a German football favourite. After manager Berti Vogts’ side won that European Championship, defeating host nation England on penalties in the semi-finals, the trophy came to their home and the song tagged along with it.When they returned to Germany, they held a public celebration in Frankfurt. Standing on the balcony of the town hall, Jurgen Klinsmann, the captain, led the thousands below in a gleeful chorus of Three Lions. In the weeks after, inspired by Klinsmann and schadenfreude, it actually reached number 16 in the German charts. By the end of 1996, Baddiel and Skinner were even performing it on German television, as part of a review of the year.Oliver Bierhoff shows off the European Championship trophy in Frankfurt in 1996 (Arne Dedert/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)The song has not quite remained on heavy rotation in the years since, but you do still hear it at times; evidence of a sense of fun which the German people are not often credited with but nevertheless runs through the country’s sporting landscape.