13 days before the first German game, national coach Hansi Flick announced his DFB squad for the World Cup in Qatar. While two BVB top performers have to stay at home, a 17-year-old goes with them. Mario Götze meanwhile becomes a national player again after a five-year break.
The German national soccer team is going to the World Cup in Qatar with newcomers Niclas Füllkrug and Youssoufa Moukoko as well as World Cup hero Mario Götze. The trio is in the 26-man squad of the DFB selection, which national coach Hansi Flick announced in Frankfurt. The biggest surprise is England legionnaire Armel Bella Kotchap, who was given preference over veteran Mats Hummels.
The squad for the final round in the desert state (November 20 to December 18) is led by seven Bayern Munich professionals led by captain Manuel Neuer. Along with Thomas Müller, Götze and Matthias Ginter, the goalkeeper is one of four more world champions from 2014. “We have a very good squad that we can take with us,” said Flick when the 26 names were announced on the DFB campus. “We didn’t make it easy for ourselves in the coaching team. We went through a lot of things, if-then strategies,” said the 57-year-old.
In addition to Hummels, Flick refrained from discovering Robin Gosens at the European Championship. The ailing Marco Reus is missing, as are the injured Timo Werner and Lukas Nmecha. Florian Wirtz was also not considered after his cruciate ligament tear. Lukas Klostermann, on the other hand, is there after tearing his syndesmosis ligament, his Leipzig colleague Benjamin Henrichs is not.
Götze from Frankfurt, who scored the winning goal against Argentina in Rio 2014 (1-0 a.e.t.), is celebrating his comeback in the national team after a five-year absence. Moukoko makes history: the Dortmunder, who celebrates his 18th birthday on the day of the opening game, becomes the youngest German World Cup participant.
The DFB entourage will meet in Frankfurt immediately after the last league games this Sunday. A day later, Flick flies with the World Cup team to Oman, where a test match against the local hosts will take place next Wednesday. A day later we continue to Qatar to the World Cup base in the very north of the country. The DFB-Elf starts the tournament against Japan on November 23 at 2 p.m. German time. Other opponents in preliminary round group E are Spain (Sunday, November 27th, 8 p.m.) and Costa Rica (Thursday, December 1st, 8 p.m.). The World Cup final will take place on December 18th.
