Borussia Dortmund According to the report
Nagelsmann surprisingly calls up BVB defender Schlotterbeck for the European Championships
Status: 12.05.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Nico Schlotterbeck (right) has recently been a stabilizing factor for Borussia Dortmund’s defense
Source: Getty Images/Matthias Hangst
The Borussia Dortmund players were considered the big losers in the German national team. For a long time it looked as if national coach Julian Nagelsmann did not want to rely on their services. But that now seems to be changing.
This comes as quite a surprise. According to a report, national coach Julian Nagelsmann has nominated Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck for the home European Championships this summer. This was announced by the “Tagesschau” on Sunday evening, citing DFB circles. The DFB commented on the Tagesschau’s Instagram post on Sunday with three hearts in black, red and gold.
Nagelsmann rewarded Schlotterbeck for his recent excellent performances at Borussia Dortmund, including reaching the final of the Champions League on June 1st against Real Madrid. The central defender last played in the 4-1 defeat against Japan in Wolfsburg in September 2023 – the last game under national coach Hansi Flick. He had never been nominated by Nagelsmann.
According to the report, Schlotterbeck has always been a great talent in the opinion of the coaching team, although his performance has fluctuated. In the meantime “he has stabilized and shown this consistency over many games”. Schlotterbeck has already played a few international matches and was also in the squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Nagelsmann will name the European Championship squad on Thursday
Borussia Dortmund was considered the team that was unable to score points with the national coach due to its mixed season. Only striker Niclas Füllkrug was considered seeded, the rest were in danger of being left out at the European Championships in the summer. That now seems to be changing.
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It remains unclear whether Nagelsmann will also bring Schlotterbeck’s partner in the BVB defense, Mats Hummels, back into the DFB team. The 35-year-old veteran was surprisingly no longer taken into account by the national coach in March for the European Championship tests in France (2:0) and against the Netherlands (2:1).
Nagelsmann justified this by saying that he relied on Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen and Antonio Rüdiger from Real Madrid in the center of defense and did not trust Hummels to take on the role as their backup. Instead, the national coach nominated Robin Koch from Eintracht Frankfurt and the Stuttgart newcomer Waldemar Anton. After outstanding performances, calls for Hummels to be reactivated have recently become louder.
Schlotterbeck has played eleven international matches so far, but has often left an unhappy impression. At the 2022 World Cup, he was involved in the 1-2 false start against Japan, and he has also taken several penalties. The 1.91 meter tall defensive player is valued for his good opening of the game.
Schlotterbeck will join the DFB entourage late in preparation for the European Championship. Due to the final of the premier class, like the seeded Real stars Rüdiger and Toni Kroos as well as his Dortmund colleague Niclas Füllkrug, he also missed the first of two European Championship tests on June 3rd in Nuremberg against Ukraine.
Nagelsmann will announce his provisional European Championship squad in Berlin next Thursday. Interesting: There will be more of these reports in the coming days. According to “Kicker”, additional squad nominations will be made public “bit by bit”.
The DFB is reacting to the previous nominations for the March international matches against France (2:0) and Holland (2:1). At that time, the appointments of the debutants Anton, Mittelstädt, Undav (all VfB Stuttgart), Beier (Hoffenheim), Beste (Heidenheim) and Pavlovic (FC Bayern) had already been leaked in advance.
