For footballers, a call-up to the national team is usually confirmation of good performance. But sometimes it also has a therapeutic function. When the up-and-coming Frankfurt Bundesliga player Ansgar Knauff was called up to the U21 youth national team in September, their coach Antonio Di Salvo said of him: “Ansgar now has to take the next step and I hope that he accepts the U21.” When Dortmund striker Youssoufa Moukoko, who had been set back by injury, was nominated for the U21 team for the same course, Di Salvo said: “We want to build Youssoufa up.” Moukoko contributed two goals to the 3-0 win in Kosovo, Knauff gained an hour of match practice and self-confidence.
A month later, the second European Championship qualifier for the U21s is on Friday in Bulgaria (6.15 p.m., Pro7maxx). Once again, Di Salvo has called up a player who is currently struggling a bit at his Bundesliga club and who he wants to nurture. In addition to Knauff and Moukoko, this time it is Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi, 21. Di Salvo says about him: “This is an opportunity for Karim – and he accepts the challenge.”
“There are phases in life when things don’t go well – I do my best”
It has been two years since the Munich native (apprenticeship at FC Bayern and in Unterhaching) became European champion as a supplementary player with the U21, completed his first three short appearances in the senior national team and was recognized by the German Football Association (DFB) as the best talent of his year was awarded the Fritz Walter Gold Medal. A year later he moved from RB Salzburg to Borussia Dortmund for an estimated 30 million euros. The medal and the transfer fee made Adeyemi one of the most promising young German footballers – but what happened is that a player who was part of the German World Cup squad in Qatar almost a year ago (albeit without playing) now has his chance again the U21 has to look?
Last spring, Adeyemi was at the peak of his creativity in Dortmund. In a Bundesliga game he was measured at a league record of 36.7 km/h. Last season, despite two breaks due to injury, he scored six goals and assisted six in 24 Bundesliga games. His Dortmund coach Edin Terzic said in February: “We discussed a few things with Karim during the winter break and he has changed a bit in his life.” Adeyemi himself said at the time about his role at BVB: “We talked a lot and became closer together.” He seemed to have arrived at BVB and in the Bundesliga.
But in the new season he was unable to build on these performances. In the seven Bundesliga games so far, he has only been in the starting line-up twice (including a later substitution) and has been substituted on three times. He didn’t manage a goal or an assist. He was even left out completely twice in the last three games.
Di Salvo and the new national coach Julian Nagelsmann have agreed that Adeyemi will not fly to the USA with the senior team but will instead take on the U21 challenge. That’s how Nagelsmann explained it to him, reports Adeyemi: “Julian told me that it’s good for me to play in the U21 for now.” Adeyemi accepted this. “I’m not playing so well at the moment,” he said humbly on Tuesday in a DFB video link, “I don’t know any specific reasons for that, but there are phases in life when things aren’t going well and I’m doing my best to to quickly regain a foothold at BVB.” He thinks the U21 is a good opportunity for that.
“One-on-one, first contact with the ball, work in the gym” – Adeyemi lists these as relevant facets of his training work. Beyond BVB, he also wants to return to the senior national team. “My focus now is clearly to help the U21s,” he says, “but my goal is to end up playing for the national team again.”
