Germany (football)

The sport of football in the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland; the BRD) is administered by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund; DFB), which was originally founded in 1900 as the governing body for football in the Deutsches Reich (Imperial Germany) and, after the First World War, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. The DFB was refounded in 1949 as the governing body for the BRD which was then commonly referred to as West Germany. Saarland and the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik; the DDR) had their own governing bodies and national teams from 1950 until they were politically reunited with the Federal Republic in 1956 and 1990 respectively. Since 1990, the DFB has governed football throughout both of the former East and West divisions of Germany.

The DFB was a founder member of FIFA in 1904 but lost its membership after the Second World War until September 1950, by which time the BRD team had missed the 1950 FIFA World Cup. The BRD played their first international match in December 1950 against Switzerland and, in less than four years, built a team that was good enough to win the 1954 FIFA World Cup, sensationally defeating Hungary's "Magical Magyars" in the final. In the same year, the DFB was a founder member of UEFA.

To 2018, Germany (BRD) has the second-best record in the FIFA World Cup after Brazil, having won the tournament four times and been runners-up four times. Their most recent victory was in 2014 when they became the first European team to win a World Cup tournament in the Americas. Among the most famous German footballers are Fritz Walter, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.

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