Leno’s cancellation to the DFB team
“Then I’m the wrong man”
01/31/2025 – 8:45 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Almost a year ago, Bernd Leno was still on the DFB selection. Months later he canceled the team. Now he takes a position again.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno from FC Fulham should have belonged to the German national team squad for the National League games against Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Netherlands in early October. But the 32-year-old canceled. National coach Julian Nagelsmann had set in the German goal for the duels on Oliver Baumann and Alexander Nübel. Leno himself would only have been number three, without prospect of opportunities.
“I was open and honest. Then I said, I am the wrong man,” Leno explains his decision in the podcast “Kicker meets DAZN”. “One or the other said that the national team should not be canceled,” said the goalkeeper, but: “I will be 33 years old in March and then go as number three and wait for my chance without ‘real game opportunities’ “He didn’t want that. Instead, he prefers to concentrate on his time in London.
At the time, national coach Nagelsmann said at a press conference that at the end everyone had to know whether they wanted to come to the national team. “In general, I said that I don’t close the door, but it didn’t work any further now,” he became clear.
Nagelsmann mainly relies on a good atmosphere in the team in the national team. Leno does not see himself as a stink boot, he would always accelerate and was “not a princess”. But you also have to think about yourself. “I was aware that the door was not going on, Julian said that correctly.”
A return to the DFB team would not rule out Leno: “Of course I have ambitions to jump on the train again-but not at any price.” He wanted to be there with performance “and then you will see how things will go.” For now, Leno will go into the next game in the Premier League. On Saturday, Fulham will be guest at Newcastle United (from 4 p.m. in the live ticker at T-Online).