German national head coach Joachim Loew announced the provisional squad for South Africa on Thursday afternoon at a press conference in Stuttgart.

The provisional squad consists of 27 players but Loew must announce 23 players until June 1 to the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association).

Before the announcement, Loew said: "We deeply analyzed each of our players but we are sure that in spite, there will be some who are not completely satisfied with our decisions."

Loew also nominated back ups for the friendly against Malta because some players will miss the friendly due to the German Cup final in Berlin.

Following is the provisional squad named Tuesday:

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Schalke), Tim Wiese (Bremen) and Hans Joerg Butt (Bayern).

Malta back up: Tobias Sippel (Kaiserslautern)

Defender: Dennis Aogo, Jerome Boateng, Marcell Jansen (all Hamburg), Arne Friedrich (Berlin), Philipp Lahm (Munich), Per Mertesacker (Bremen), Serdar Tasci (Stuttgart), Holger Badstuber (Munich), Heiko Westermann (Schalke), Andreas Beck (Hoffenheim)

Malta back up: Stefan Reinartz (Leverkusen) and Mats Hummels (Dortmund)

Midfielder: Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Marko Marin, Mesut Oezil (both Bremen), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg), Sami Khedira (Stuttgart), Christian Traesch (Stuttgart), Toni Kroos (Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Munich)

Malta back up: Kevin Groskreutz (Dortmund) and Marco Reus (Monchengladbach)

Striker Cacau (Stuttgart), Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Mueller (all Munich), Stefan Kiesling (Leverkusen) and Lukas Podolski (Cologne)

"We fully trust in our nominated players, and we expect to enjoy together eight weeks. We also expect to have seven spectacular matches in South Africa," stated Loew at end of the nomination.