VOr she was very lucky, Karim Adeyemi broke one of Hansi Flick’s rules. After his international debut, which was crowned with a goal, the striker ran at a brisk teenage pace up to the middle tier of the Stuttgart arena, laughing and hugging his parents and his great sponsor Manni Schwabl. The 19-year-old was therefore too late for the obligatory ad hoc team meeting in the DFB dressing room. Which Flick forgave him with a smile. “He had something good, it was paid for,” said the national coach.
Flick has known for a long time what the fans of the national soccer team could see on this first good-mood evening under the new DFB head coach. Adeyemi is a great promise for the (near) future. Many already see the solution to the German center forward problem.
The attacker from the Austrian series champions FC Salzburg needed 19 minutes after his substitution to give a personal punchline to an evening full of symbolic power with the sixth and final goal against Armenia. “I’m still flashed,” said Adeyemi.
“This is something special”
Born in Munich, Gerd Müller’s number 13 was on the field, substituting for his idol Serge Gnabry. “Playing with Gnabry or watching and talking to him is something special,” said Adeyemi, almost reverently, about his first encounters with the role model on the A-Team.
The admired knows what it feels like to score on the DFB debut. Gnabry won 8-0 in San Marino three times in Serravalle in November 2016. A feat that football greats like Fritz Walter and Dieter Müller once achieved. On Sunday Gnabry increased his impressive hit rate in the DFB jersey to 18 in 28 games. “It always feels good when you score a goal that can help the team. Today, that was good, ”said the 26-year-old.
Gnabry, who was still so alarmingly lax at the EM in the summer, has found his goal energy again under Flick and is a role model for the youngster generation, to which the EM-tried Jamal Musiala (18) and Florian Wirtz (18) belong prepared the Adeyemi Gate. Three teenagers on the pitch show Flick’s potential for renewal. “That feels good and is a good process for the team that is being initiated,” said Flick, describing the strength of the youth.
Adeyemi had to take a detour. The first player in the post-war period to make the leap to the German national team directly from the Austrian league, as reported by the APA news agency, was eliminated as a boy at FC Bayern in 2012 and then continued to develop at Spielvereinigung Unterhaching.
“My speed first. In the front a bit in the one against one and my goal danger, that’s how I would describe myself, those are the things that come to my mind, “said Adeyemi of his strengths. Flick had already noticed them in the Salzburg duel as Bayern coach.
Most recently, he sent his scout Hermann Gerland across the border to observe them several times. The national coach did not want to create too much euphoria after the debut. “Nevertheless: There is still a lot of work to be done for him, too,” said Flick. For example when it comes to punctuality.
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