BERLIN, Germany, October 16 – Germany’s stars will each receive up to 200,000 euros ($271,240) for helping Joachim Loew’s squad reach next year’s World Cup, with the German Football Federation (DFB) paying out four million euros.
Germany qualified for Brazil 2014 as Group C winners having won nine of their 10 matches and eight of the squad qualify for the maximum amount of 20,000 euros per game.
Curiously, reserve goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler of Hanover 96 collects the maximum sum despite not playing a single minute of the qualifying campaign having been on the bench for every game.
Arsenal stars Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker, plus Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer, Thomas Mueller, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm and Chelsea’s Andre Schuerrle are the other seven to pick up the full amount.
Meanwhile, Franz Beckenbauer, a World Cup winning captain and coach, has said he expects current skipper Philipp Lahm to pass Lothar Matthaeus’s record of 150 appearances for Germany.
Lahm earnt his 103rd international cap on Tuesday in the 5-3 win against Sweden in Stockholm, but Beckenbauer expects the 29-year-old to go on to earn many more.
“If anyone can overtake Matthaeus’s record of 150 internationals, then it is Lahm,” Beckenbauer told website dfb.de.
Both current internationals Miroslav Klose (130) and Lukas Podolski (111) have more caps, but right-back Lahm is rarely injured and earned Beckenbauer’s praise for his longevity.
“With his light-footedness, good playing vision and intelligence, he gets less injured than others,” observed Beckenbauer.
“He’s a jack-of-all-trades and I don’t know any player who has been so consistent at such a high level for so many years.”
