Chapter 1The Art of Stable Team Design
“Brazil has Neymar. Argentina has Messi. Portugal has Ronaldo. Germany has a team!” This tweet from a soccer fan flew around the world following Germany’s surprising defeat of host country Brazil 7:1 in the 2014 World Cup semifinals. Germany went on to claim the title of world champions, a success that experts attribute to a football culture based on team spirit and shared long-term goals, a culture that relies on players who fit the team rather than individual superstars.
Germany was far from having the greatest individual players in the world in 2014, but it did have the highest performing team.
As former English footballer Michael Owen stated in The Telegraph[1] following the match, “I once asked my ...
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