Joachim Low believes his Germany side's sensational performances at the FIFA World Cup™ will prompt the giants of European football to descend on the Bundesliga in search of new stars.
The German Bundesliga is the most represented league in the FIFA World Cup semi-finals, with 28 players plying their trade there. It would have been 29 but for Germany full-back Jerome Boateng switching from Hamburg to mega-rich Manchester City during the tournament.
But with the remaining 22 German players plus six of the Dutch squad playing in Germnay, Low believes that's where big teams will look to do their shopping ahead of the new season. "The big clubs in Europe will look at our players," said the Germany coach.
"German teams have worked hard on systems, they've paid more attention to intelligent play, we've got better. The success of our teams gives us more respect in Europe, like Bayern [Munich] last season in the Champions League [where they reached the final]."
Loew credits this improvement in German fortunes to a long-term plan that has been in operation for some time. "This is a process that has been ongoing for several years; winning individual battles is important but it's not something you can work on in a few weeks," he said.
German teams have worked hard on systems, they've paid more attention to intelligent play, we've got better.Joachim Low, Germany coach
However, the coach said that having all of a national side's players playing in the same league doesn't necessarily help. "I don't think it is an advanatge that they all play in the same league," he said. "It's very good for our championship but playing abroad allows you to improve. It's always helped our national team to have players playing abroad."
Looking ahead to Wednesday's semi-final in Durban against European champions Spain, Low played down the importance of the Iberians' possession game. "It's not just about keeping hold of the ball but also about being dangerous," he said. "They're not Italy in 2006 with perfect [defensive] organisation. Holland and Spain are teams that concentrate on attack."
The two sides met in the UEFA European Championship final in Vienna two years ago and although Spain won only 1-0, they were head and shoulders above the Germans that day. However, Germany's midfield general Bastian Schweinsteiger believes his team is the one that has progressed since then. "We have a lot of respect for Spain, for what they've done, for their title," he said.
"They have very good players and we will need to win collectively. Against players such as [Andres] Iniesta, Xavi and Xabi Alonso it's not just about winning individual battles but team ones. We have to stop them creating chances for [David] Villa and [Fernando] Torres.
"But we have new faces and new characters. Spain haven't changed a lot; except for [Sergio] Busquets, they're the same as in 2008. They're in decent form, they possibly haven't played as we expected but the big teams manage to win even when they're not playing well.
"In the 2008 final we were disappointed but Spain were clearly the better team, even if they won only 1-0. Of course there's a feeling of revenge. We'll show we can beat them even if Spain are better on paper. We've shown in this tournament we can beat teams that are better on paper."
