I coached Ozil, Sane and Matip - they compare me to Arteta and Mourinho but I don't manage

Well one of the answers was sitting at home minding his own business, although he'd never admit it his status as one of the most influential figures in the history of German football.

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Before the World Cup victory, a treble-winning campaign from Bayern Munich a year earlier saw Borussia Dortmund beaten at Wembley, after both sides had torn apart peak Barcelona and Real Madrid in their respective semi-finals.

The Spanish dominance from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's El Clasico giants had been brutally shattered, and it was no fluke as the World Cup in South Africa a year later proved.

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Germany had undisputedly risen to the top in both domestic and international football, and every association across the globe was scrambling to figure out how it could be replicated.

For four of the players, though, their first priority was to message their youth team coach from Schalke, Norbert Elgert.

Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler and Benedikt Howedes had all learned their trade at the same 'Knappenschmiede' finishing school in Gelsenkirchen, but astonishingly, they're far from the only ones.

Add Joel Matip, Leroy Sane, Sead Kolasinac, Weston McKennie and Thilo Kehrer to that list and you're not even close to being done.

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"We are very successful, we know that," Elgert exclusively told talkSPORT.com. "I think of our academy the most players eventually made it in Europe in professional football.

"In what we make of our education we are very good, but the players are most important, we are very good at educating players for football and life, but I hope that doesn't sound arrogant."

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Humbleness is integral for Elgert, who has been head of Schalke's academy and coaching their youth team since 1996, but never had the desire to manage in the Bundesliga.

Despite that, he still was named Germany's Coach of the Year in 2014 for his role in revolutionizing the national team.

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In his autobiography Gib Alles (Give Everything), with excerpts from his former players, Ozil even compared his old coach to a man who took the playmaker to another level at Real Madrid.

"Mesut compared me with [Jose] Mourinho, Sead with [Mikel] Arteta," he said. "I'm so many miles away from them, my decision was education, to educate.

"In the first years I was [first team] assistant here, it was a very important experience for me because I decided to choose this path because I was very happy with it.

"I'm sure it would be possible to have success as a professional coach but I never felt it, and you must feel it, you must want it."

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The same goes for Elgert's players too, with desire and hunger key to an astounding six per cent of Schalke academy players making it professionally.

"You need to be able to get up every time you fall down," Elgert explained. "You have to be ready to suffer if you want to be a professional.

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"I had a big discussion with our team about this - about grit - grit for me is the best word, when you aren't hungry for your goals and you don't want to work for your goals every day you have no chance.

"Life is hard, everyone of us knows it, and they must learn to overcome obstacles, they must learn to go over small mountains because when they don't learn that they will never overcome the Mount Everest which is professional football."

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Elgert too has changed, now in his 60s, his role is arguably more important than ever.

Schalke's relegation to the second tier in 2021 crippled the club financially on top of even more tough decisions.

The German giants, who have the fourth highest weekly footfall in Europe at their VELTINS-Arena, lost out more than anyone through the COVID pandemic with the disappearance of ticket sales.

Their main benefactor, Clemens Tonnies, was cut off for alleged racist comments and the treatment of workers in his meat factories, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine saw lead sponsor Gazprom also dropped.

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In that period, money from Elgert's academy-produced sales have been vital, with £10million from AC Milan for Malik Thiaw and £20m from Juventus for McKennie, to name just two.

All in all it's estimated that Elgert has made Schalke over €250m through sales from his academy products, a gargantuan sum for a team that has spent just €12m on incomings the past three seasons.

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His work, though, doesn't go amiss, with Ozil returning to thank Elgert and wish for better times for Schalke, while he's also recently been in touch with Neuer during his toughest period so far at Bayern.

"In these times I call them," he said. "When they have such a big life, I call them only when they win a very big title or when they have hard times.

"My contact to many ex-players is very, very good and it makes me proud because that's not so easy in today's time.

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"For example after winning the World Cup, the four players from us, Neuer, Ozil, Draxler and Howedes, wrote to me and said thank you coach, and that makes us all proud, the club and academy isn't a one-man show."

That level of respect was ingrained from a young age, as Elgert explains: "In our team we have respect, humility - that doesn't mean a lack of confidence or courage, it only means a total absence of arrogance.

"It means sincerity, gratefulness, industriousness. We have shared values, convictions and goals.

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"If we would say we were responsible for them being how they are it would be a bit arrogant, it's more than football, we try to give them values.

"A coach is much more than a trainer, a trainer only makes training and match plans, a coach is more of a mentor and a teacher, he works as a psychologist.

"My job as a coach is to get as many players as possible into the senior team, but my personal sense is to help as many young people as possible reach their dreams and their goals and to find a purpose in life.

"Five to six per cent get to a professional level but that is still more than most other academies.

"We don't want them to only focus on football, we want them to also go to school and have a proper education so they won't be lost if they don't make it into the professional team.

"The values, willingness, being able to play in a team, it's not only important on the pitch it's important in other professions too."

But, almost a decade on from the 2014 World Cup, there's still an acknowledgement that Schalke and Germany do it best, with even England's greatest young talents such as Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho heading over the channel to learn their trade.

"I prefer the holistic approach," Elgert explained. "That means we don't divide technique, tactics, athletics, mental and physical strength, it all belongs together, we educate human beings and not machines.

"Technique under pressure of space and time is very, very important, but it's nothing when you don't understand the game. Game intelligence, the cognitive abilities, creativity, accident perception, working memory, I don't divide it, it belongs together.

"If you're technically really good but you don't understand the game you have no chance of being a professional."

But what makes Elgert and Schalke so special?

"For me it's the same when people ask me the secret, there's no secret," he said.

"If there's a secret you're arrogant, it's hard work and improvement every day, it's concentration on the process and to be better every day.

"Today I always want to be better, in coaching, in leading people, in my personality, in tactics, I want to know everything.

"When you don't improve you're a dinosaur, and the dinosaurs didn't live long."