Die Honamas in 2026: world champions in rebuild, the shoot-out in their blood

It is January 2023, the World Cup final in India, and Germany trails 0-2 against Belgium. It is the third knockout match in a row in which the team falls behind, and the third in a row in which it comes back. Regulation time ends 3-3, and in the shoot-out a twenty-year-old substitute in the German goal saves the decisive ball. Germany is world champion for the third time. A year and a half later, in the Olympic final of Paris 2024, almost the same thing happens, but the other way around: 1-1 again, another shoot-out against the Netherlands, only this time Oranje keeps its cool. It becomes silver, and the aftermath travels across the entire hockey world.

This dossier tells the story of the Honamas heading into the 2026 World Cup: a world champion in full rebuild, who must defend its title in the backyard of its two greatest tormentors. You will read where the team comes from, who is replacing the golden generation that has stopped, how Germany plays, and what to watch out for above all during the tournament.

World ranking and qualification

On paper Germany is one of the very strongest nations in the world: reigning world champion (2023), Olympic runner-up (2024) and reigning European champion (2025). Yet the team does not sit at the top of the FIH world ranking, but in the upper midfield, behind nations such as Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Australia. That gap between honours and ranking tells exactly the story of this moment: a team that won the big titles with a generation that has now largely departed, and that pays the price on the ranking for a transition year.

Germany qualified for the 2026 World Cup as European champion, after a won European Championship final against the Netherlands at home in Mönchengladbach. The current ranking position therefore says less about the quality of German hockey than about the phase the team is in. On a continent where Belgium, the Netherlands and England form the absolute top, the room for small mistakes is narrow, and it is precisely those small mistakes that are the common thread of the German season.

All of Germany's World Cup appearances

Germany is among the most decorated hockey nations in the world. The table below shows the complete World Cup history of the German men.

The three world titles

Germany won the World Cup three times: in 2002 (Kuala Lumpur), 2006 (at home, Mönchengladbach) and 2023 (Bhubaneswar). That last one lingers most, because in every knockout match, quarter-final, semi-final and final, Germany managed to overturn a 0-2 deficit, a feat that earned the team the nickname "comeback kings". In addition, Germany won Olympic gold four times (1972, 1992, 2008 and 2012) and is the record holder at the European Championships on the field with nine titles. The first Olympic medal dates all the way back to 1928 in Amsterdam (bronze), and in 1972 the first Olympic gold followed in Munich: Michael Krause decided the final against Pakistan in the sixtieth minute with a penalty corner, 1-0. It was the first time since 1920 that an Olympic hockey champion did not come from India or Pakistan. Off the field, Germany is moreover the powerhouse in indoor hockey, with the 2025 indoor world title (Poreč) as the most recent proof, a detail that becomes more important further on than it seems.

Recent editions

The last two World Cups mark the line of the current era. In 2018, under head coach Stefan Kermas, Germany went out ingloriously in the quarter-final (1-2 against Belgium), with a team that had lost its tactical sharpness. Five years later, under André Henning, the team stood in a completely different place: world champion via that run of comebacks, a year later Olympic silver, and in 2025 European champion once again. Between those two World Cup editions, then, lies a complete revival, and at the same time the start of the rebuild the team is now going through.

Philosophy and approach

No name is so tied to the German resurgence as that of national coach André Henning. Born in Velbert, he had to end his playing career early after a serious knee injury, after which he threw himself into coaching. At 23 he became the youngest head coach ever in the Bundesliga at Uhlenhorst Mülheim, and through a successful spell at Rot-Weiss Köln (national titles and the 2017 Euro Hockey League) he grew into one of the country's most sought-after tacticians. He led the German U21 to the world title in 2013, assisted the German women to Olympic bronze in Rio (2016) and even coached the Canadian men's team at the Tokyo Games, before he became national coach of the Honamas in late 2021.

In the international press Henning has been described as a "Klopp-Nagelsmann hybrid": the warm group dynamic of Jürgen Klopp, focused on connection and trust, combined with the data-driven tactical flexibility of Julian Nagelsmann. His signature is a cooperative leadership style in which players are not passive executors but co-owners of the tactical plan. The squad is split into thematic groups, each responsible for an element (set pieces, cohesion, recovery), so that in the closing stage of a final the team does not wait for instructions from the sideline, but adjusts on its own. It is precisely that self-direction on which the German comebacks are built. Henning is strikingly sober about the position of his sport: "we always had to be smarter, because we lack the resources", he summed up the German situation. He stands in a recognisable tradition of national coaches: before him Bernhard Peters (world champion in 2002 and 2006), Markus Weise (Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012) and, after a lean interim period, Kais al Saadi built the team.

Paris 2024: the silver route and the legacy

At the Paris 2024 Games the German machine seemed to be running at full power again. The team reached the final, once more against the Netherlands, and once more it was 1-1 after regular time. But in the shoot-out the Dutch came out on top, and it was silver. The match became notorious above all for its aftermath, the provocation by Duco Telgenkamp towards the German goalkeeper (see the chapter on the rivals). The legacy of Paris was twofold: a team that competed with the world's best until the last second, but also a first farewell, because after the Games attacking leader Niklas Wellen and veteran Marco Miltkau ended their international careers.

Euros 2025 Mönchengladbach

A year later, in the 2025 European Championship final on home soil in Mönchengladbach, the team turned it around. Again 1-1, again a shoot-out against the Netherlands, but now goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg kept the Dutch from scoring and Germany became European champion 4-1 in the series. It earned the ninth European title (a record), but it was also a farewell: after the tournament captain Mats Grambusch and his best friend Lukas Windfeder said goodbye to the national team. The German tabloid press dubbed the European triumph "Hockey-Rache" (hockey revenge) for the lost Olympic final, although the players themselves played down that revenge narrative as mainly a media theme.

FIH Pro League 2024-25 and 2025-26

In the FIH Pro League of the 2025-26 season the rebuild became clearly visible. The Netherlands dominated the competition as an unbeaten leader, while Germany stayed stuck in midfield, around sixth place, with strongly fluctuating results. There were convincing wins (6-1 against Pakistan in Hobart) and a won shoot-out against the Netherlands in Rotterdam in which Danneberg was once again the hero, but also narrow defeats against Australia and India and, in the closing stage of the season, a heavy 1-4 against Belgium on 23 June 2026. Henning named that inconsistency himself without mincing words: after a Pro League defeat he called the match a "classic emblem of a team in rebuilding", plenty of chances, but at every goal conceded an individual mistake that was immediately punished. The final standings of the 2025-26 Pro League are not decided until late June, with the closing matches, and at the time of writing are not yet definitive (see the verify list). A Pro League table has therefore deliberately not been included here yet.

The staff under Henning

The technical staff is led by national coach André Henning, who since his appointment in 2021 has worked with a fixed core of assistants, analysts and a goalkeeping coach. The exact staff composition for the 2026 World Cup will be confirmed around the official selection (see the verify list). Above the sporting staff operates the Deutscher Hockey-Bund (DHB), with its seat at the Hockeypark in Mönchengladbach.

Training group mid-2026

The biggest storyline of this selection is who is no longer part of it. The 2023 world-champion core has been heavily dismantled: after Paris 2024 Niklas Wellen (player of the tournament at the 2023 World Cup) and Marco Miltkau stopped, and after the 2025 Euros captain Mats Grambusch and Lukas Windfeder followed. Four key players, gone within two years. That is the rebuild Henning speaks about openly.

The training group below is the preparation selection of mid-2026; the official World Cup 18 will not be named until around July. Birth years and caps are approximate (approx.) and must be updated at the final selection; empty cells mean unknown.

Key players

Jean-Paul Danneberg is the undisputed focal point. Born in 2002, having started at TEC Darmstadt and at Rot-Weiss Köln since 2022 (where he was initially second choice behind the Belgian world-class Vincent Vanasch), he grew at a furious pace into the best goalkeeper in the world. In November 2025 he was officially named FIH Goalkeeper of the Year, ahead of Englishman James Mazarelo and Argentine Tomi Santiago, largely on the basis of his shoot-out heroics. He is the living embodiment of the German identity, and the thread that connects the old and the new Germany.

Tom Grambusch has been the captain since late 2025, and thereby the successor to his older brother Mats. He is a physically strong defender of Rot-Weiss Köln who handles the build-up and plays a key role at the penalty corners. The Grambusch brothers, who grew up in a true hockey family in Mönchengladbach and are business partners off the field, symbolise the transition from one era to the next.

Christopher Rühr is one of the few remaining veterans. He passed the mark of two hundred internationals and remained decisive in 2026 too, among other things with the winning stroke in the won shoot-out against the Netherlands in Rotterdam.

Moritz Ludwig is one of the pillars of the new axis: a physically strong, multifunctional defender-midfielder of Uhlenhorst Mülheim who forms the link between the compact defence and the fast transition.

Gonzalo Peillat is a story apart. Born Argentine, Olympic champion with his country of birth in 2016, he chose Germany in 2022 and for years became the absolute cornerstone of the German penalty corner with his devastating drag flick. Sportingly it matters that in the first months of 2026 he barely featured in the internationals, in which Tom Grambusch and the emerging Benedikt Schwarzhaupt took on the penalty corners. Whether Peillat is fit and selected for the World Cup is one of the open questions in the run-up.

Competition analysis per line

Broadly, the competition for places per line looks like this. This is a snapshot; the official selection may differ.

The Henning system

The German style of play under Henning rests on three pillars: aggressive pressing after losing the ball, a compact zonal defence, and a fast, efficient transition forward. Where many top nations look for their strength in individual class, Germany looks for it in collective discipline. The most recognisable weapon is the half-court press: no passive dropping back, but an active trap. As soon as the opponent has the ball at the back, the front German attacker does not run in a straight line at the ball carrier, but in a slight arc, to close off the passing lane into the dangerous centre and to force the build-up towards the sideline. The midfielders shift along and put the playmakers in their shadow, and as soon as a slow cross-field pass or a poor first touch comes, the trap snaps shut against the sideline. The whole block moves as a closed line horizontally with the ball, which gives German hockey its characteristic look. If that press is beaten, Germany drops back in a controlled way into a compact zonal defence, in which it defends on space and relative position rather than tight man-to-man. That saves energy and keeps the explosiveness in reserve that is needed for the counter the moment the ball is won back.

The goalkeeping battle

In goal the situation is special. Danneberg is the first-choice goalkeeper, with Alexander Stadler as an experienced alternative. Danneberg's real speciality is the shoot-out, a discipline that springs from the German indoor hockey tradition (see the culture chapter). In the shoot-out series he stays on his feet remarkably long and so forces the shooter into a rushed choice. It is no coincidence that Germany has won one shoot-out after another in recent years: it is practised, specialised craftsmanship.

The penalty corner as a weapon

At the penalty corners lies an interesting hinge point. In the title years Germany leaned heavily on the drag flick of Gonzalo Peillat, one of the hardest and purest in the world. In the rebuild of 2026, Tom Grambusch (with his variations and slip variants) and the emerging Benedikt Schwarzhaupt took over the penalty corners, as in the Pro League of early 2026. And then there is the honest caveat, which Henning himself puts most sharply: the German defence is solid and the shoot-out series is a weapon, but inside the circle this young side sometimes lacks the cool-headedness to settle matches early. Too often in the Pro League Germany got more chances and more penalty corners than the opponent, and still lost, because a single individual mistake was punished immediately. At World Cup level, against Belgium or the Netherlands, such mistakes are rarely left unpunished. That is exactly where the rebuild still has to mature.

The Netherlands: the Klassiker

The Netherlands is the rival, the match that always feels different in Germany. The rivalry got a face in 2024 in the affair around goalkeeper Danneberg. Before the Olympic final he had said in the German press that the Dutch were "really afraid" of Germany, a statement that Oranje printed out and hung in the dressing room. When Telgenkamp then converted the decisive shoot-out, he walked up to the kneeling Danneberg, put a finger to his lips and gave a little tap on his mask. Danneberg afterwards called it "the most unsporting thing I have ever seen in my life". Telgenkamp later apologised via WhatsApp, and it was settled.

Belgium: the 2023 final, now at home

Belgium is the opponent from the 2023 World Cup final, which Germany won after a 3-3 in the shoot-out series. In 2026 the two meet again, and right away in the pool phase, in the Belgian Wavre, where Belgium is the host nation. For Germany that is a loaded fixture: the side they knocked off the throne in 2023, now at home. That the Belgians are ready for it was shown as recently as 23 June 2026, when they brushed Germany aside 1-4 in the Pro League.

Australia: the semi-final of the comeback year

Australia plays a leading role in the comeback story: in the World Cup semi-final of 2023 Germany came back from 0-2 to 4-3, partly thanks to a hat-trick from Peillat and with the winning strike from Wellen five seconds before time. The Kookaburras, with their physical, direct play, remain a benchmark.

India and Argentina: history and tension

India is woven into the finest German memory (the 2023 world title on Indian soil) and always provides a tricky, technical opponent. Argentina, finally, carries a special charge through Gonzalo Peillat, who as an Argentine by birth now plays for Germany and in the quarter-final of Paris 2024 scored against his country of birth.

Key players per rival

• The Netherlands: captain Thierry Brinkman, penalty corner specialist Jip Janssen, attacker Duco Telgenkamp.
• Belgium: drag flick specialist Alexander Hendrickx, goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch (clubmate of Danneberg), attacker Tom Boon.
• Australia: playmaker/finisher Blake Govers and the physical backbone of the Kookaburras.
• Argentina: the fast attack around the young generation of Los Leones.

If one word sits at the centre of Germany's self-description, it is resilience. The comebacks of 2023 were no accident, but the product of a culture that Henning has deliberately built. By making players co-owners of the tactical plan, the collective does not fall apart when it comes under pressure. "We believe in each other", Wellen said after the won semi-final against Australia, "this team is crazy, we're not done here yet." After the lost Olympic final Thies Prinz put the bond within the squad like this: "The emotions with this team were bizarre. These are friends, it sometimes feels like family. For them I would go through fire."

That mentality also comes with a striking honesty. When Mats Grambusch bowed out as European champion, he said about the difficult final: "After such a long career, this ending, that is truly spectacular. In hockey it ultimately still comes down to the goals, and we scored them back then. Even if it was late." It is a typical German-Honamas quote: brutally honest, without embellishment. That same down-to-earth tone echoes in Henning, who does not gloss over setbacks but names them.

The question for 2026 is whether that mentality is transferable. The comeback culture was embodied by players who are no longer there: Grambusch who directed the team, Wellen who scored the late goals. What remains is a younger group that has inherited the myth but still has to live up to it, anchored by a goalkeeper who rarely fails in the shoot-out. Can a team hold on to the identity of the comeback kings when the kings themselves have departed? That is the mental core of this tournament.

Hockey is not a mass sport in Germany like football, but it is the country's most successful Olympic team sport, and in certain cities it lives intensely. Mönchengladbach is the beating heart: this is home to the German Hockey Federation (DHB), here stands the largest hockey stadium with the SparkassenPark (the Warsteiner HockeyPark), and here the European Championships of 2023 and 2025 were played. For many German players, and certainly for the Grambusch brothers, the city is the proverbial living room.

A peculiarity that makes German hockey fundamentally different from the Dutch is the role of indoor hockey (Hallenhockey). Where indoor in the Netherlands is often a winter bridge, in Germany it functions as a tactical school of higher learning. The cramped space, the use of the side boards and the high intensity force young players early on to understand positional play, passing lines and quick ball handling. Germany has therefore for years been the powerhouse indoors, with the indoor hockey world title of 2025 as the most recent proof (although the team surprisingly lost the indoor European Championship at home in Heidelberg as defending champion in early 2026). It is no coincidence that goalkeeper Danneberg is a product of that indoor tradition: his shoot-out qualities flow directly from it.

Structurally, Germany deliberately opts for a decentralised model. Unlike countries with a central training centre, the German selection largely trains at its own Bundesliga clubs, with a lot of personal responsibility for players. The competition itself is manageable: since 2003 there has been a single-track first Bundesliga with twelve men's teams. That club model demands a lot of independence, and it partly explains why Henning hammers so hard on intrinsic motivation and self-direction. That comes with a sober financial reality: even a world star like Gonzalo Peillat calls himself "Halbprofi" and works alongside hockey, and the Grambusch brothers studied business administration and run a real-estate company. Top sport, yes, but without the wealth of football.

It is within that context that Peillat's own story says so much about German culture. The Argentine-born player fell out with the Argentine federation, moved to Mannheim, learned German (at his club he was given the nickname "Günther" for his German traits), took on German nationality in 2022 and said: "Germany is my home". At the same time he remained modest: the passport alone did not yet make him a team member, he had to be an added value and earn his place. A sport that embraces such a player and makes him a world champion says something about its own open, pragmatic character.

The tournament venues

The World Cup 2026 is played in the Netherlands (Amstelveen) and Belgium (Wavre). For Germany the symbolism lies in those locations: the tournament takes place in the backyard of the two countries that thwarted the Germans most often, and the men's final is scheduled in Belgian Wavre. A title defence would taste nowhere sweeter, and nowhere harder.

Pool B and the tournament format

Germany has been drawn in a pool with host nation Belgium, France and Malaysia. It is a group with a double bottom: the confrontation with Belgium is immediately a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final, and on top of that in the opponent's stadium.

Sportingly the pool is manageable: against France and Malaysia Germany should be the favourite, and the match against Belgium mainly determines the pool win and with it a more favourable path in the knockout phase.

Scenario analysis: the road to the final

The scenarios diverge. In the best case the young team confirms that the rebuild is complete, leans in the knockouts on its defence and on Danneberg in the shoot-out, and defends its title in Wavre. In the realistic middle scenario Germany reaches a semi-final or a medal, but the absence of the retired leaders proves just too great against Belgium, the Netherlands or Australia. In the worst case the team stumbles over the very sloppiness that Henning already named this season, and is eliminated early. That all three scenarios are conceivable captures precisely the tension of this German World Cup.

1. The shoot-out is German territory. If a match ends level, the real German weapon begins. Watch Danneberg, who stays remarkably long on his feet and so forces the shooter into an early choice. It is not luck, it is specialised craftsmanship, rooted in the German indoor hockey tradition.

2. The "wall" effect in the press. When the opponent plays around at the back, Germany does not charge out individually, but slides the whole block horizontally along as a closed line. Those tight mutual distances are the visual hallmark of the half-court press.

3. The curved run of the forward. Watch how the front German attacker does not run straight at the ball carrier, but in an arc, to cut off the pass to the centre and force the build-up to the sideline. That is the starting signal of the German pressing.

4. The trap against the sideline. As soon as the opponent at the line gives a slow square pass or controls the ball poorly, the German trap snaps shut with a double team. If it works, a dangerous counter often follows immediately.

5. The penalty corner in transition. With Peillat's fitness uncertain, the German corner now revolves around Tom Grambusch and the rising Benedikt Schwarzhaupt. Watch the slip variants with which they try to deceive the opponent's runners.

6. The final quarter. Germany is known as a comeback team. A deficit at half-time means little; precisely in the closing quarter the team often strikes. Never write off the Honamas too early.

7. The Klassiker, if it comes. A knockout against the Netherlands is always more than a match. Watch the mental duel, and the charged history around Danneberg and Telgenkamp.

8. Belgium in the pool. The confrontation with host nation Belgium is a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final. How Germany deals with it, after the 1-4 in the Pro League of June, says a lot about the mental state of the team.

9. The new faces. Keep an eye on Moritz Ludwig, Justus Weigand and Thies Prinz. On their shoulders rests the question of whether the rebuild has succeeded.

On Sunday 30 August 2026, the men's World Cup final is played in Wavre. Whether Germany are there depends on three conceivable scenarios. In the finest scenario the rebuild proves complete, the young side defends its title, and shows that the comeback culture is bigger than the names that shaped it. In the middle scenario Germany reach a medal, but the absence of Grambusch, Wellen and the others bites at just the decisive moment. In the bleakest scenario their own sloppiness takes its toll and the side goes out early, far from its own expectations.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: as long as Jean-Paul Danneberg stands in the German goal, and as long as a match can end in a shoot-out, no one may write off the Honamas. The side that turned the comeback into an art form in 2023 and became European champions again in 2025 is rebuilding, but its most dangerous weapon, the composure when it truly matters, it has not surrendered. And of all places in the backyard of its two biggest tormentors, that could just make the difference.

Official sources: the International Hockey Federation, the EuroHockey Federation, the FIH Pro League, the official World Cup platform hockeyworldcup2026.nl and the Deutscher Hockey-Bund (with magazin.hockey.de and verband.hockey.de). For international context, among others Scroll.in and Olympics.com.

German and Dutch media: Sportschau (ARD), hessenschau, Tagesspiegel, Sport1, the Stuttgarter Nachrichten/Zeitung, the Hockey-Zeitung and club source Mannheimer HC. For the Dutch side of the Klassiker: hockey.nl.