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A broken toe kept Augsburg’s Mert Kömür from making his Germany U21 national team debut in September. If all goes according to plan this time, however, the celebrated young Bundesliga professional should get a chance to not only impress at Germany’s highest youth level, but get a chance to taste what might be before him as well.
The Germany U21s will take advantage of the fact that they too are headed to Belfast early next week. After Julian Nagelsmann’s senior team squares off against the Northern Irish in a crucial World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park on Monday, the two U21 teams will kick off on the Eastern banks of the Lagan at the Oval on Tuesday.
After contesting their first UEFA U21 European Championship qualifier of the international break against the Greek U21s in Jena on Friday evening, Di Salvo’s charges will travel to the Isle over the weekend to link up with Nagelsmann’s crew. Kömür expressed some enthusiasm for the coming “DFB Field Trip” at a Wednesday press event.
Kömür was nevertheless sure to temper his expectations. While the 20-year-old remains in absolute red-hot form for club,there remains many tough tests to conquer in his young career. Moreover, in modern football, the U21s aren’t exactly the stepping stone to they used to be.
Deep scoutings enables many players to leapfrog the U21 level. There are also legions of players who build long careers with the U21s, but are never seriously considered for the senior team level for various reasons.
Di Salvo bid farewell to plenty such players after the summer U21 Euros; talented footballers who will likely never represent their country again. Players such as Eric Martel, Ansgar Knauff, Jan Thielmann, and Jamil Siebert simply aren’t senior team material.
Kömür can still take solace in the fact that Nick Woltemade (18 U21 caps), Nico Schlotterbeck (13 U21 caps) Jamie Leweling (11 U21 caps), and Waldemar Anton (11 Caps) did ultimately work their way up. Karim Adeyemi also proved an enormous U21 success story last autumn.
There’s also German phenom Florian Wirtz, who once sat out the 2021 Euros in order to contest the 2021 UEFA European Championship under Stefan Kuntz. Wirtz – together with recent German senior team returnee Ridle Baku – helped Kuntz’s side capture the continental championship that year.
“It’s technically not a big step from the U-21s to the senior national team,” Kömür said on Tuesday. “Of course, it’s a big step in sporting terms. We’ve seen in the past that it can happen quickly.
“It’ll be fun to see Finn Dahmen,” Kömür said of the link up. “In terms of my playing style, Florian Wirtz is my idol. I always enjoyed watching him at Leverkusen and also enjoyed playing against him.“
GGFN | Peter Weis
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