National coach Joachim Löw also congratulated Stefan Kuntz and the German U21s on winning the European Championship. but how does it continue? Some players can make the leap to the top.
Almost everyone is hoping for the European Championship U21-Professionals for a future with new national coaches Hansi Flick (replaces Jogi Löw after the EM) and the A-national team. But who did the best self-promotion when winning the tournament?
Lukas Nmecha (22 / RSC Anderlecht / on loan from Manchester City)
The final hero and top scorer in the European Championship. 12 goals in 20 U21 internationals speak for themselves. “Hopefully a few of us will meet again in the senior team,” said Nmecha as he held the golden shoe in his hand for his four European Championship goals. Nmecha still belongs to Manchester City until 2022, but wants to switch to get playing time – and score goals. It’s hard to believe: Four years ago, Hamburg-born Nmecha decided a final against Portugal at the U19 European Championship. The only difference: at that time he was wearing the England jersey.
Florian Wirtz (18 / Bayer Leverkusen)
Wirtz is still waiting for the results of his high school exams, but on the lawn he has already passed his school leaving exam with flying colors. The youngest player in the DFB-The squad not only scored the fastest goal in the 2-1 semi-final against the Netherlands after 29 seconds U21-EMHistory, but added the second hit in the eighth minute. When it came down to it, the young star showed his whole class on the ball. The step to Hansi Flick is now the logical one, even if Wirtz could still play in the U21 European Championship in 2023. By the way, in 2025 too.
Niklas Dorsch (23 / KAA Ghent)
The “Dorschi” traveled to the finals without knowing whether he would play at all – he was finally suspended in the quarter-finals. But he played – and how. His energy performance in the final was reminiscent of Bastian Schweinsteiger in the 2014 World Cup final. Dorsch ran until he fell, straddled and passed and then thanked his grandmother. “She sent me the best message in a long time. Grandma, I love you,” said Dorsch into the TV cameras. True enough: Grandma had promised her grandson “Sauerbraten und ein Haxe” if she won the title.
Ridle Baku (23 / VfL Wolfsburg)
Baku is the only one of the new U21 European champions to have joined Joachim Löw played. In the European Championship final, the defender on the right was unstoppable, spinning back and forth and also preparing the goal of his old friend Nmecha. “Now we are in the history books of the DFB, nobody can take that away from us,” said Baku, whose father Lutumba was a big fan of Karl-Heinz Riedle – the first name gives it away. In Wolfsburg Baku played mostly further up front recently, which proves his enormous qualities. In the long run, Hansi Flick will hardly be able to get around him.
David Room (23 / Greuther Fürth)
Raised with Fürth, with the U21 European champion: “Flankengott” Raum concluded a fantastic year in Slovenia. As in the league, Raum also delivered one precise cross after the other in the DFB team. A development that also works for Stefan Kuntz so was not foreseeable. “I saw him at the very beginning at a game in Würzburg. That’s when he made his worst game of the season. Then I said to my coaching colleagues: ‘I don’t know what to do with him.’ And then he developed like that taken, “said Kuntz. Next season, Raum in the Oberhaus will collect assists at TSG-Hoffenheim – and maybe soon again in the DFB jersey.
.
