Tah backs Germany after late World Cup win over Ivory Coast

Jonathan Tah left the field with a performance that carried both the weight of a first World Cup and the authority of a veteran. Germany waited until late in the second half to finish off Ivory Coast, and the decisive goals came from the bench, a result that matched Tah’s belief that sustained pressure would eventually break an opponent.

For Tah, the moment landed after a long and uneven path in the national team. The 30-year-old defender was making his first World Cup appearance for Germany in 2026, even though he had debuted under Joachim Löw back in 2016. He was called in as an injury replacement for Euro 2016 but never played a minute, then missed the final World Cup squad in 2018 and was also left out of Germany’s next European Championship and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

That wait has only sharpened the significance of his role now. By June 2025, Tah had earned 35 caps for Germany and had passed the 300-match mark in the Bundesliga. His form had already been validated on the domestic stage, where he was a central piece of Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten Bundesliga and German Cup double in 2024. DW, citing Opta, reported that he finished the 2024-25 Bundesliga season with a 96% pass completion rate, the best figure recorded since those numbers began being tracked nearly two decades ago.

Tah’s move to Bayern Múnich for the 2025-26 season added another layer to his rise. He arrived in Munich after the Leverkusen title run and stepped into a tournament that has placed him at the heart of Germany’s back line, alongside Antonio Rüdiger under Julian Nagelsmann. Before the competition, Tah said a World Cup was “algo especial” and said he was “muy ilusionado” to be there for the first time.

The match also carried personal resonance. Tah’s father was born in Ivory Coast, and in 2025 he said he had returned to the country for the first time since he was 14, describing the warmth he felt there. FIFA listed Germany against Ivory Coast as Match 33 of the 2026 World Cup, staged at Toronto Stadium in Toronto on June 20, 2026, as part of Group E. In the end, the late finish looked less like a surprise than the payoff to a plan built on patience, depth and the expectation that pressure would eventually tell.