Ahe also enjoyed taking a close look at the German U-21 national team on Sunday. The 6-0 victory over Armenia in the Stuttgart World Cup qualifier raised fresh hopes among the future players in the top junior squad of the German Football Association (DFB).
Shinta Appelkamp, the 20-year-old German-Japanese playmaker from Fortuna Düsseldorf, said: “It’s great when guys who have been here get into the senior national team. That’s what the U 21 is for. It’s a sign that you can really do it. “
Above all, the last exclamation mark in Stuttgart could have given the stars of tomorrow hope. How worth seeing Florian Wirtz and Karim Adeyemi, the goal scorer to make it 6-0, overturned the Armenian defensive with a one-two, should have been seen by some young professionals as an incentive to get to the top.
U 21 is currently the European champion
After all, the 18-year-old midfield dynamic from Bayer 04 Leverkusen and the 19-year-old attacker from RB Salzburg as well as Flick’s Ridle Baku from VfL Wolfsburg, who played in the 2-0 win against Liechtenstein, were among the top U-21 squad, which on June 6th in Ljubljana became European champions by beating Portugal 1-0.
Not enough with that, another player from the former team of the association coach Stefan Kuntz gave his premiere in the A-team: the 23-year-old Hoffenheim left-back David Raum, who was substituted against Armenia.
Before the third World Cup qualifying duel within a week this Wednesday in Reykjavík against Iceland (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for World Cup qualifications and on RTL), Nico Schlotterbeck, the 21-year-old central defender of SC Freiburg, has not yet received the mandate to be able to revive the game of the four-time world champion after the tests at the U-21 European Championship and the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Five U-21 European champions in the circle of the first line-up of the new national coach Hansi Flick, plus the 18-year-old Munich high-flyer Jamal Musiala, clearly point to equal opportunities for the most talented youngsters. In the case of Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw, this could only be said of exceptional talents such as Musiala, who never played in the U21s and Kai Havertz, who switched from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Champions League winner Chelsea in 2020.
Löw did not appoint any of the current U-21 European champions to his final squad for this year’s European Championships. Of the first U-21 European champions that Kuntz led to the title in 2017, only Serge Gnabry from Munich was there. Three professionals from the German junior national team, which failed in the 2019 final to Spain, Lukas Klostermann from Leipzig, Robin Koch, who plays at Leeds United in England and Florian Neuhaus from Gladbach, were part of the second row of the squad.
Löw as a talent promoter? That was once. In 2010, at the World Cup in South Africa, this national coach also relied on the youth after the U21s won this European championship for the first time for the DFB in 2009 under the then coach Horst Hrubesch. Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil enlivened the World Cup line-up with their early class from that team.
In addition, the then 20-year-old Bayern star Thomas Müller, who headed Löw’s attack department in his youthful recklessness alongside Miroslav Klose. The Germans, who were third in the tournament in 2010 after intoxicating performances, became world champions four years later – with other U-21 European champions from 2009 such as Mats Hummels and Benedikt Höwedes.
After that, Löw’s late adolescent curiosity ended. But not that of his then assistant Flick, who as Löw’s successor could be a stroke of luck for the DFB. So the new national coach sent an old friend from successful years in Bavaria to Salzburg. Hermann Gerland, Flick’s new chief scout, came, saw and recommended the young Adeyemi for the highest orders. Born in Munich, he already played football at FC Bayern as a child, before being sent away after a few indiscipline at the age of ten and learning the basics of football at the Unterhaching game association.
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In 2018, the Munich suburb club made its biggest deal with the young daredevil when he transferred Adeyemi to RB Salzburg for three million euros. Where many talents – see Erling Haaland – have become masters of their craft, the son of a Romanian and a Nigerian scored six goals in the first six competitive games of this season.
Adeyemi owes his rise to Flick and Kuntz, who recently only had a thin line with Löw. “The agreement was great,” says the successful U-21 coach about Flick’s nomination process. No wonder, when Flick, then still DFB sports director, Stefan Kuntz, brought the coach out of service to the association in 2016. “Even then we had a trusting relationship,” says the 58-year-old Saarlander about the two-year-old from Baden. Since Flick and Kuntz benefit from each other and get along well, both could create bright moments for the crisis-ridden DFB.
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