Pascal Groß Reflects on Germany's Euro Exit and His Future

Pascal Groß watched it all unfold from the sidelines.

Germany’s European Championship campaign had gone the distance, 120 minutes locked at 1-1 before the quarter-final was thrown to the lottery of penalties. The stadium held its breath. On the pitch, Joshua Kimmich was searching for volunteers as the shoot-out moved beyond the original list of five takers.

The response was hesitant.

Leon Goretzka declined. So Jonathan Tah, a central defender with no previous penalty record to his name, stepped forward as Germany’s sixth taker. He smashed his effort over the bar – the first missed penalty of his professional career – and the DFB team slid out of the tournament in brutal fashion.

Pascal Groß never left the bench.

Julian Nagelsmann did not turn to the Brighton midfielder, even though Groß had been ready for exactly that moment. Speaking to kicker, he admitted he had prepared himself for the possibility of taking a spot-kick, but refused to dwell on what might have been. “I was prepared for this scenario, but I don't want to rake it over now,” he said.

Once the dust settled, the subject simply disappeared inside the camp. There was no debrief with the national coach, no detailed post-mortem of who should have stepped up.

“After that, the issue did not come up again with head coach Nagelsmann,” Groß explained. “No, there was no conversation. It hurt him enormously too, of course, everyone was devastated.”

The penalty drama turned out to be one of Groß’s last real brushes with a major tournament for Germany. At the World Cup in North America, his role shrank to a brief cameo: just 17 minutes off the bench in the group match against Ecuador. That was it.

When Jürgen Klopp took over as national coach, Groß’s name was no longer on the squad list. Given his age – now 35 – the omission raised few eyebrows, even though he had not yet officially announced his international retirement.

With time and distance, he made his own decision.

“After the World Cup, with a bit of distance, I had already decided that the matter was over for me,” he admitted. There was no showdown talk, no emotional farewell meeting. “I did not have a conversation with the head coach. For me, not being nominated is not a problem.”

Current Situation

So where does that leave Pascal Groß now?

On the south coast of England, right at the heart of one of the Premier League’s sharpest sides. While his Germany chapter quietly closes, his club form has roared into life again.

Groß has 19 caps and one goal for his country, a modest international return that hardly reflects his influence at Brighton. This season, he has started like a player determined to squeeze every last drop out of his peak years. The Seagulls head into the international break sitting third in the Premier League table, and their veteran playmaker is driving the surge.

• Three goals.
• Four assists.
• Five league matches.

Those numbers are not just tidy; they are outstanding. Groß is dictating games, threading passes, arriving in the box at the right time, and setting the rhythm for a side that refuses to be overawed by anyone.

Germany may have moved on. Brighton clearly have not. As the national team looks to rebuild and Klopp shapes a new era, the question lingers in the background: is this really the end of Pascal Groß in a Germany shirt, or just a pause while he plays some of the best football of his life?