New Delhi, July 3 -- For millennials and Gen-X, two words captured German football: "winning mentality". If it were a pop franchise today it could have been called 'The Vile and the Victorious'. "Football is a simple game," said England striker Gary Linekar, "22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." Then, in the late-1990s, the German national team stopped winning; its style remained ugly.

The German Football Association initiated a ground-up reboot around 2003, creating the world's best coaching and youth development system. The result: an assembly line of talented young players groomed in an attractive style. Germany reached the Euro '08 final. At the 2010 World Cup (WC), they knocked out England 4-0 and Arg...