Just under a month before the start of the World Cup, the field of candidates is sorted: At the end of the week, national coach Flick has to submit his provisional squad to FIFA. Flick’s long list includes a few surprises and plenty of goalies.
According to information from “Bild”, Mario Götze (Eintracht Frankfurt), Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund), Rani Khedira and Robin Knoche (both Union Berlin) are in the provisional World Cup squad reported to FIFA by national coach Hansi Flick.
On the list of up to 55 players that the German Football Association (DFB), like all World Cup participants, had to hand in to the world association FIFA next Friday, the names of other surprise candidates such as Christoph Kramer, Luca Netz (both Borussia Mönchengladbach) and Niclas Füllkrug (Werder Bremen), who was expected by many experts in the World Cup squad. The 57-year-old Flick will announce his final squad on November 10, it may include a maximum of 26 players.
The preliminary squad list published by “Bild” includes 44 players, including five goalkeepers (Manuel Neuer/FC Bayern, Marc-André ter Stegen/FC Barcelona, ??Kevin Trapp/Eintracht Frankfurt, Oliver Baumann/TSG Hoffenheim, Bernd Leno/FC Fulham) . According to the report, Flick is considering taking four goalkeepers with him to Qatar. So far, three have been the norm, but a maximum of 23 players were allowed to be nominated in past tournaments. With Neuer, Kramer, Götze, Matthias Ginter (SC Freiburg), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) and Thomas Müller (FC Bayern Munich), there are still six players in the squad who won the World Cup in 2014.
Curious: Christoph Kramer, who has sporting rather outsider chances to travel to Qatar as part of the DFB entourage, will definitely be there at the World Cup: The midfielder was presented by ZDF as an expert. “Today, as a precaution, I had my football boots in the trunk, I only needed a jersey,” said the 31-year-old with a smile in September after the national team’s 1-0 draw against Hungary in the Nations League. “I really don’t like to leave you alone, I would leave you alone for my fatherland,” said Kramer to ZDF presenter Jochen Breyer. “I don’t know how realistic that is, it’s an honor and I’m happy that my name is associated with it,” Kramer said of a possible return to the squad: “Of course I’ll fuel every rumor mill.”
