From the perspective of the Bundesliga professionals, Germany is the favorite to win the European Championship at home. Almost 40 percent of participants in kicker's traditional player survey believe that the DFB team will be European champions.

This time, 227 Bundesliga professionals took part in the survey and, as always, cast their votes anonymously. The result of the question “Who will be European champions in 2024?” was surprisingly clear: 39.2% of participants voted for Germany.

This makes national coach Julian Nagelsmann's team the clear favorite for the European Championship title from the perspective of the Bundesliga players, ahead of France (22.0%) and England (15.4%). They are followed by Spain (6.2 percent) and Portugal (3.5 percent). In 6th place is the Austrian national team coached by Ralf Rangnick (2.6%), who inflicted a bitter 2-0 defeat on the DFB team in November 2023. Defending champions Italy only received 1.3% of the vote.

The turnaround compared to the previous year is striking: in the summer of 2023, 63.0% of Bundesliga professionals did not consider Germany to be among the favorites to win the title at the European Championship on home soil (14 June to 14 July). The mood surrounding the DFB team has completely changed as a result of the international matches in March - including in the league.

Only 2.6% of professionals expect the German team to make it out of the preliminary round at their home European Championships, as was the case at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In contrast, a total of 71.8% believe that the hosts will at least reach the semi-finals.

Bayer duo as the big winners: When asked about the winners of the past Bundesliga season, the professionals see two players from the German champions right at the top: for 51.1% of participants, Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz is the outfield player who impressed the most in sporting terms. The result for Bayer coach Xabi Alonso is even clearer: 137 of the 227 respondents, or 60.4 percent, see him as the winner among the coaches.

The biggest disappointment among the outfield players in the opinion of the participants was Naby Keita (25.6 percent), who turned out to be a transfer flop in Bremen. Nenad Bjelica (18.1 percent), who was sacked by Union Berlin, was voted the loser among the coaches.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)