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

It is January 2023, the World Cup final in India, and Germany trail Belgium 0-2. 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 grabs the decisive ball. Germany are world champions for the third time. Eighteen months later, in the Olympic final of Paris 2024, almost the same thing happens, only in reverse: 1-1 again, another shoot-out against the Netherlands, but this time it is Oranje who stay cool. It is silver, and the aftermath goes around the entire hockey world.

On 20 July 2026, head coach André Henning revealed who has to carry that identity this time. The twenty-strong World Cup squad contains nine world champions from 2023 and thirteen European champions from 2025, but also five players competing at their first major tournament. The average age is just above twenty-five. This dossier tells the story of Die Honamas ahead of the 2026 World Cup: where the team comes from, who replaces the retired golden generation, how Germany play, and what to watch for during the tournament.

World ranking and qualification

On paper, Germany are one of the very strongest countries in the world: reigning world champions (2023), Olympic runners-up (2024) and reigning European champions (2025). Yet the team do not sit at the top of the FIH world ranking but in the upper mid-tier, behind countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Australia. That gap between honours list and ranking tells the story of this moment precisely: a team that won the big titles with a generation that has now largely left, and that pays the ranking price for a transition year.

Germany qualified for the 2026 World Cup as European champions, after a won European 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. That picture was confirmed in the FIH Pro League 2025-26, which Germany finished sixth at the end of June: too erratic for the top, too good to be written off. On a continent where Belgium, the Netherlands and England form the absolute elite, the margin for mistakes is small, and it is exactly those mistakes that are the recurring theme of Germany's season.

All of Germany's World Cup appearances

Germany are 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 (on home soil, Mönchengladbach) and 2023 (Bhubaneswar). It is the last of those that lingers most, because Germany overturned a 0-2 deficit in every single knockout match, quarter-final, semi-final and final, a feat that earned the team the nickname "comeback kings". Germany also won Olympic gold four times (1972, 1992, 2008 and 2012) and are the record holders at the European field championships with nine titles. The first Olympic medal dates all the way back to 1928 in Amsterdam (bronze), and in 1972 came the first Olympic gold in Munich: Michael Krause settled 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 had not come from India or Pakistan. Off the pitch, Germany are also the dominant force indoors, with the 2025 indoor hockey world title (Porec) as the most recent proof, a detail that later matters more than it seems.

Recent editions

The last two World Cups trace the arc of the current era. In 2018, under head coach Stefan Kermas, Germany went out ingloriously in the quarter-final (1-2 to Belgium), with a team that had lost its tactical edge. Five years later, under André Henning, the team looked completely different: world champions via that run of comebacks, Olympic silver a year later, and European champions again in 2025. Between those two World Cup editions 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 as bound up with Germany's resurgence as that of head 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 via a successful spell at Rot-Weiss Köln (national titles and the 2017 Euro Hockey League) he grew into one of the most sought-after tacticians in the country. 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 becoming head coach of Die Honamas at the end of 2021.

In the international press, Henning has been described as a "Klopp-Nagelsmann hybrid": the warm, connection- and trust-driven group dynamic of Jürgen Klopp, 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 divided into thematic groups, each responsible for one area (set pieces, cohesion, recovery), so that in the closing stages of a final the team does not wait for instructions from the sideline but steers itself. 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 means", he summed up the German situation. He stands in a recognisable tradition of national coaches: before him, Bernhard Peters (world champion 2002 and 2006), Markus Weise (Olympic gold 2008 and 2012) and, after a leaner interlude, 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 speed again. The team reached the final, once more against the Netherlands, and once more it was 1-1 after regulation. But in the shoot-out Oranje came out on top, and it was silver. The match became notorious above all for its aftermath, the provocation by Duco Telgenkamp aimed at the German goalkeeper (see the chapter on the rivals). The legacy of Paris was twofold: a team that competed with the world's best to the final second, but also a first farewell, because after the Games attacking leader Niklas Wellen and veteran Marco Miltkau retired from international hockey.

Euros 2025 Mönchengladbach

A year later, in the 2025 European final at home in Mönchengladbach, the team turned it around. Again 1-1, again a shoot-out against the Netherlands, but this time goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg kept Oranje from scoring and Germany became European champions 4-1 in the series. It brought the ninth European title (a record), but it was also a farewell: after the tournament, captain Mats Grambusch and his best friend Lukas Windfeder left the national team. The German tabloid press dubbed the Euro win "Hockey-Rache" (hockey revenge) for the lost Olympic final, though the players themselves played down that revenge narrative as mostly a media theme.

FIH Pro League 2025-26 and the road to the squad

In the FIH Pro League of the 2025-26 season the rebuild became clearly visible. 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 and a heavy 1-4 against Belgium in June. Germany closed the season at their own final round in Berlin in sixth place; Belgium won the competition and with it the first direct Olympic ticket for 2028. Henning named the inconsistency himself without hesitation: after a defeat he called the match a "classic symbol of a team in rebuild", plenty of chances, but with every goal conceded an individual mistake that was punished immediately. A full Pro League final table has deliberately not been included in this dossier yet; see the verification list.

On 20 July 2026 the definitive squad followed. Henning stressed above all the double nature of his team: "with an average age just above 25, we will be one of the youngest teams at the tournament", he said, while at the same time there are fourteen players who have already won a title with Germany. The mix of hunger and the knowledge of how success works must, in his view, carry this team. What he had earlier framed as the key question still stands: how quickly does this team grow together after the farewells of Mats Grambusch and Lukas Windfeder and the long-term injury to Gonzalo Peillat.

The staff under Henning

The technical staff is led by head coach André Henning, who since his appointment in 2021 has worked with a settled core of assistants, analysts and a goalkeeping coach. Among them is Pasha Gademan, in daily life head coach at Rot-Weiss Köln, the club that with a string of internationals is by far the most strongly represented in the squad. Above the sporting staff operates the Deutscher Hockey-Bund (DHB), based at the Hockeypark in Mönchengladbach.

The definitive World Cup squad

The biggest storyline of this squad is who is no longer in it. After Paris 2024, Niklas Wellen and Marco Miltkau retired; after the 2025 Euros, captain Mats Grambusch and Lukas Windfeder followed. This season added two painful absentees: penalty-corner specialist Gonzalo Peillat, who misses the tournament after a cruciate ligament injury, and Martin Zwicker, who in June 2026 became the outdoor record international with 336 caps but did not make the definitive twenty. Alexander Stadler, for years the second goalkeeper, is also missing.

Against that stands the influx. Five players are experiencing their first major senior tournament: Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji, Hugo von Montgelas, Antheus Barry and Jakob Brilla, all four U21 world champions in 2023, plus Justus Warweg, who won the U21 world title in December 2025 and scored the opening goal in that final against Spain. Rot-Weiss Köln provides the largest contingent with a string of internationals.

The table below is the official World Cup squad of 20 July 2026. The number of caps is indicative: the best-documented public count runs to August 2025, so the actual numbers are higher in August 2026. Empty cells mean unknown.

Key players

Jean-Paul Danneberg is the undisputed centrepiece. Born in 2002, he started at TEC Darmstadt and has been at Rot-Weiss Köln since 2022 (where he was initially second choice behind the Belgian world star Vincent Vanasch), and rose at breakneck speed to become the best goalkeeper in the world. In November 2025 he was officially named FIH Goalkeeper of the Year, ahead of England's James Mazarelo and Argentina's Tomi Santiago, largely on the strength of his shoot-out heroics. He is the living embodiment of the German identity, and the only player who can carry the thread from 2023 to 2026 on his own.

Tom Grambusch is the captain, and thereby the successor to his older brother Mats. He is a physically strong defender from Rot-Weiss Köln who handles the build-up and, now that Peillat is missing, has become the most important penalty-corner taker. The Grambusch brothers, who grew up in a genuine hockey family in Mönchengladbach and are business partners off the pitch, symbolise the transition from one era to the next.

Christopher Rühr is the most notable returnee. After Paris 2024 the forward stepped away from the national team, but he came back, passed the two-hundred cap mark and is now captain himself at Rot-Weiss Köln. In a squad full of players in their twenties he is, together with Große, the player with the most tournament kilometres in his legs.

Benedikt Schwarzhaupt grew in a single season from prospect to key player. The defender from UHC Hamburg became European champion in 2025 and took charge of the penalty corners in the World Cup build-up, including with a goal in the won shoot-out match against Argentina.

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

Justus Warweg is the face of the new generation. The forward from Rot-Weiss Köln's own youth ranks became U21 world champion in December 2025 and scored the opening goal in that final against Spain. At the World Cup he makes his debut at a major tournament.

Role distribution within the squad

The squad is definitive, but the role distribution is not yet. Broadly it looks like this; this is a snapshot based on the World Cup build-up.

The Henning system

Germany's playing style under Henning rests on three pillars: aggressive harrying 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 look for it in collective discipline. The most recognisable weapon is the half-court press: no passive dropping off, but an active trap. As soon as the opponent has the ball at the back, the front German attacker does not run straight at the ball carrier, but on a slight curve, to close the passing lane to the dangerous centre and force the build-up towards the sideline. The midfielders shift across and shadow the playmakers, 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 with it as a closed line, horizontally, tracking the ball, which gives German hockey its characteristic look. If that press is bypassed, Germany drop back in a controlled way into a compact zonal defence, in which they defend on space and relative position rather than tight man-to-man. That saves energy and preserves the explosiveness needed for the counter the moment the ball is won back.

The goalkeeping battle

In goal the situation is clear and at the same time special. Danneberg is first-choice goalkeeper, and his real specialty is the shoot-out, a discipline that stems from the German indoor hockey tradition (see the culture chapter). In the shoot-out he stays strikingly long on his feet and thereby forces the shooter into a hasty choice. Behind him now stands not the experienced Alexander Stadler, but Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji, a contemporary of Danneberg who earned his stripes as a U21 world champion and plays in Barcelona. The German goalkeeping reserve is therefore younger and less experienced than in years, which only increases the weight on Danneberg's shoulders.

The penalty corner as a weapon

Here lies the biggest tactical fault line with the golden era. In the title years, Germany leaned heavily on the drag flick of Gonzalo Peillat, one of the hardest and cleanest in the world. Peillat misses the World Cup through a cruciate ligament injury, and with him disappears not just a shooter but a complete weapon. The responsibility now lies with Tom Grambusch, who brings his variations and deflection options, and with Benedikt Schwarzhaupt, with debutant Jakob Brilla as an extra option. In the World Cup build-up against Argentina, Schwarzhaupt and Brilla both scored from a penalty corner, and against Spain Grambusch and Schwarzhaupt did the same. Encouraging, but it is not yet proof that the new corner also holds up at World Cup level.

And then there is the honest caveat, which Henning himself puts most sharply: the German defence is solid and the shoot-out is a weapon, but in the circle this young team sometimes lacks the coolness to settle matches early. Too often Germany created more chances and more penalty corners than the opponent in the Pro League, and lost anyway, because an individual mistake was punished immediately. At World Cup level, against Belgium or the Netherlands, such mistakes rarely go unpunished. That is precisely where the rebuild still has to ripen.

Netherlands: the Klassiker

The Netherlands are the rival, the match that always feels different in Germany. The rivalry gained 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 remark that Oranje printed out and hung up 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 tapped 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 on home soil

Belgium are the opponent from the 2023 World Cup final, which Germany won after a 3-3 in the shoot-out. In 2026 the two meet again, and straight away in the group stage, in Belgian Wavre, where Belgium are the host. For Germany that is a charged fixture: the team they knocked off the throne in 2023, now on home soil and as winners of the Pro League. That the Belgians are ready for it was already clear in June 2026, when they brushed Germany aside 1-4.

Australia: the semi-final of the comeback year

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

India and Argentina: history and charge

India is interwoven with Germany's finest memory (the 2023 world title on Indian soil) and always provides a difficult, technical opponent. Argentina long carried a special charge via Gonzalo Peillat, the born Argentine who chose Germany and who in the quarter-final of Paris 2024 scored against his country of birth. Now that he misses the World Cup, that duel loses some of its personal charge, but nothing of its sporting weight: in the build-up it became another gruelling shoot-out match.

Key players per rival

• Netherlands: captain Thierry Brinkman, penalty-corner specialist Jip Janssen, forward Duco Telgenkamp.
• Belgium: drag-flick specialist Alexander Hendrickx, goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch, forward Tom Boon.
• Australia: playmaker and finisher Blake Govers and the physical axis of the Kookaburras.
• Argentina: the fast attack around the young generation of Los Leones.

If there is one word at the heart of Germany's self-description, it is resilience. The comebacks of 2023 were no coincidence, but the product of a culture Henning 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 are not done here yet." After the lost Olympic final, Thies Prinz put the bond within the team like this: "The emotions with this team were bizarre. These are friends, it sometimes feels like family. For them I would walk through fire."

That mentality also comes with a striking honesty. When Mats Grambusch said goodbye as European champion, he said of the laborious final: "After such a long career, this send-off, that really is spectacular. In hockey it still ultimately 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 soberness echoes in Henning, who does not paper 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, Peillat, who hammered home the corners. What remains is a group of which five players are experiencing their first major tournament and most of whom have not yet approached thirty, with as its anchor 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 left, and that identity has therefore been inherited rather than self-written? 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 is intensely alive. Mönchengladbach is the beating heart: this is home to the German Hockey Federation (DHB), here stands the largest hockey stadium in the SparkassenPark (the Warsteiner HockeyPark), and here the Euros 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 the indoor game in the Netherlands is often a winter bridge, in Germany it functions as a tactical academy. The cramped space, the use of the boards and the high intensity force young players early on to understand positional play, passing lanes and fast ball handling. Germany have been the dominant indoor force for years, with the 2025 indoor hockey world title as the most recent proof (although the team surprisingly lost the indoor Euros at home in Heidelberg as defending champions in early 2026). It is no coincidence that goalkeeper Danneberg is a product of that indoor tradition: his shoot-out qualities stem directly from it.

Structurally, Germany deliberately choose a decentralised model. Unlike countries with a central training centre, the German squad largely trains at their own Bundesliga clubs, with a lot of personal responsibility for the players. The competition itself is compact: since 2003 there has been a single-tier first Bundesliga with twelve men's teams. That club model demands a great deal of independence, and it partly explains why Henning insists so much on intrinsic motivation and self-direction. Telling too is where the players earn their living: five of the twenty World Cup travellers play outside Germany, in Barcelona or at Dutch club Pinoké. With that comes a sober financial reality: even a world star like Gonzalo Peillat called himself a "Halbprofi" (semi-pro) and worked 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 story says so much about German culture. The born Argentine fell out with the Argentine federation, moved to Mannheim, learned German (at his club he was given the nickname "Guenther" for his German traits), took German nationality in 2022 and said: "Germany is my home". At the same time he stayed modest: the passport alone did not yet make him a team member, he had to be an added value and earn his place. That he has to watch this World Cup from the sidelines is one of the most bitter stories of this German summer.

The tournament venues

The 2026 World Cup is played in the Netherlands (Amstelveen) and Belgium (Wavre). For Germany the symbolism sits in those venues: 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 sweeter nowhere, and be harder nowhere.

The pool and the tournament format

Germany play their group matches at the Belfius Hockey Stadium in Wavre, against Malaysia (15 August), host Belgium (17 August) and France (19 August). It is a group with a double bottom: the clash with Belgium is immediately a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final, and on top of that in the opponent's stadium.

In sporting terms the pool is manageable: against Malaysia and France, Germany should be the favourites, and the match against Belgium chiefly decides the pool win and thereby a more favourable path in the knockout phase. For a young team that schedule is also functional: two matches to build rhythm and confidence around a test of strength that immediately makes clear where the team stands.

Scenario analysis: the road to the final

The scenarios diverge. In the best case, the young team confirm that the rebuild went faster than expected, lean in the knockouts on their defence and on Danneberg in the shoot-out, and defend their title in Wavre. In the realistic middle scenario, Germany reach a semi-final or a medal, but the loss of the retired leaders and of Peillat's penalty corner turns out to be just too great against Belgium, the Netherlands or Australia. In the worst case, the team stumble over the very sloppiness that Henning already named this season, and go out early. That all three scenarios are conceivable is exactly what marks 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 strikingly long on his feet and thereby forces the shooter into an early choice. It is not luck, it is specialised craftsmanship, rooted in the German indoor hockey tradition.

2. The new penalty corner. This is the biggest question of the tournament. Without Peillat, the German corner revolves around Tom Grambusch and Benedikt Schwarzhaupt, with debutant Jakob Brilla as an extra option. Watch the deflection variants and how many corners Germany need for a goal.

3. The "wall" effect in the press. When the opponent knocks it around at the back, Germany do not charge out individually, but shift the whole block across as a closed horizontal line. Those tight relative distances are the visual hallmark of the half-court press.

4. The curved run of the forward. Watch how the front German attacker does not run straight at the ball carrier, but on a curve, to cut off the pass into the centre and force the build-up towards the sideline. That is the starting signal of the German pressing.

5. The trap against the sideline. As soon as the opponent on the line gives a slow cross-field pass or takes the ball poorly, the German trap snaps shut with a double team. If it works, a dangerous counter often follows immediately.

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

7. The veterans as a thermometer. Christopher Rühr and Johannes Große are the players with the most tournament experience. How visible they are in the tough moments says a lot about how much support the young team needs.

8. The debutants. Justus Warweg, Hugo von Montgelas, Antheus Barry, Jakob Brilla and second goalkeeper Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji are playing their first major tournament. If they get real minutes in the knockout phase, the rebuild is further along than expected.

9. Belgium in the pool. The clash with host Belgium on 17 August is a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final, against the winners of the Pro League. How Germany handle it says a lot about the mental state of the team.

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

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 team defend their title, and prove that the comeback culture is bigger than the names that shaped it. In the middle scenario, Germany reach a medal, but the loss of Grambusch, Wellen and Peillat takes its toll at just the decisive moment. In the darkest scenario, their own sloppiness bites and the team go out early, far from their 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 Die Honamas. The team that raised the comeback to an art form in 2023 and became European champions again in 2025 lines up with five debutants and without the men who wrote that story. Their most dangerous weapon, the coolness when it truly matters, now rests on shoulders that still have to prove it. And it is precisely in the backyard of their two greatest tormentors that it will become clear whether such an identity is something you win, or something you pass on.

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). The definitive World Cup squad was published by the DHB and the FIH. 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, Verbandsbuero and club sources such as Rot-Weiss Köln, Berliner HC and Mannheimer HC. For the Dutch side of the Klassiker: hockey.nl.