Ansgar Knauff is 20 years old. As a young professional soccer player, he learns something new every day. For example, it’s been two and a half weeks since he learned how to win important, tight games in the Europa League final – and how to celebrate properly afterwards. With Eintracht Frankfurt he defeated the Glasgow Rangers, then his experienced colleagues showed him how to beat the drums professionally.
National players in the German U21 selection pass on relevant experiences from the club to their young teammates. As a Europa League winner, Knauff is an important contact for German football talent these days. How was it two and a half weeks ago in Seville? And how do you celebrate properly? Knauff knows about that now. When the U21s qualified for the 2023 European U21 Championship with a 4-0 win against Hungary on Friday evening in Osnabrück, Knauff went ahead and passed on his experience from Frankfurt. He said with all the appropriate composure at first: “The coach said: If you perform well, you can celebrate. So I think we’ll do it now.” And then they celebrated. That too is part of football. The U21 national coach Antonio Di Salvo said: “Let them celebrate, today I turn a blind eye.”
Di Salvo, 42, may be the most relieved of all. He took over the post of U21 national coach from Stefan Kuntz eight months ago. Kuntz, now senior national coach of Turkey, was very successful in this job. He led the oldest German youth team to the final of the European Championship three times and to the title twice. Di Salvo was promoted from assistant to head coach following Kuntzen’s departure and now has to prove he can do it as well as Kuntz.
The start was bumpy. In the first qualifier under Di Salvo in his hometown of Paderborn, the German team was 2-1 down against Israel up to the 88th minute. Then Kevin Schade (Freiburg) and Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz) turned the game around with two goals within three minutes. Di Salvo was relieved, the U21s won the next game 5-1 in Hungary, but a month later they suffered a debacle in mid-November in Großaspach in a 4-0 defeat by Poland. Qualifying for the European Championship was in jeopardy, and that would have been the worst thing for the U21s: missing out on participating in the European Championship for the first time since 2011 (back then under coach Rainer Adrion).
But Di Salvo got his protégés back on track. Four victories followed without conceding a goal: 4-0 against San Marino, 4-0 against Latvia, 1-0 in Israel and on Friday evening in Osnabrück the 4-0 against Hungary with goals from Youssoufa Moukoko (Dortmund), Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz ), Tom Krauss (Leipzig) and Lazar Samardzic (Udine). “I’m very happy with the team’s performance,” said Di Salvo. “Our big goal was to qualify for the European Championship.” In this respect, the new U21 national coach initially achieved everything that was necessary. The next, even more important test will not take place for a year, in June 2023 at the European Championships in Romania and Georgia.
Di Salvo now has twelve months to view and compose his EM squad. He doesn’t have much influence on the performance of potential players, because that depends on how much creative freedom these players are given at their clubs. In this respect, the U21 national coach hopes above all that as many players as possible will get as much playing time as possible. Knauff, Burkardt, Armel Bella Kotchap (Bochum), Luca Netz (Mönchengladbach) and Jamie Leweling (Fürth, soon Union Berlin) are good examples. You played a lot last season. Confirming this in the coming season will be a challenge.
Summer got off to a bad start for Leweling on Friday night, injuring an ankle in the 9th minute. In the worst case, his outer ligament is torn. Actually, the season is already over, but because the World Cup does not start until November in Qatar this year, the last U21 European Championship qualifiers from autumn have been brought forward to now. The German team will play their final game against Poland in Lodz on Tuesday. It’s no longer about anything there. Accordingly, they will go to work with caution.
