The recent breakthroughs enjoyed by England's junior sides - World Cup winners at under-17 and under-20 levels - may be good news for English football. The truth is that others may not be particularly enthralled by the success.
The general manager of Germany's national team Oliver Bierhoff has admitted to being ''worried'' by the development. This is probably because in the arms race of youth development, England have been playing catch-up for decades and the German legend intends for it to stay that way.
Oliver Bierhoff
The Germans have therefore looked at St. George's Park and pushed through plans for their own high-tech academy which is how Nasa might design a soccer centre.
The DFB Academy, in Frankfurt, will be fully operational by 2020. It is like St. George's Park, but better in several respects.
Said Bierhoff, ''We want to have a Havard for football where the best people come together and tackle the big issues. We have been to Silicon Valley and the Max Planck (Science) Institute in Berlin. I just went to have a look at Formula One base. I want to bring together the best people; players, coaches, scientists.''
Germany's natioal team
The Germans are always re-inventing themselves. This latest move is intended to build on almost two decades of excellence since the embarrassment of Euro 2000, when an injured Bierhoff missed a wretched Germany's defeat to a dire England.
Results have been so good since then that falling at the semi-finals at Euro 2016 could be regarded as a failure for a team who were second, third, third and first in the past four World Cups and reached a final and two semi-finals in the past three European Championships.
Germany's women's team
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