Leon Goretzka played three big tournaments for Germany, each of which ended disappointingly. It should be clear after only 90 minutes that he will be given the opportunity to bend something straight at the 2026 World Cup.
The goal quotas of Kai Havertz and Leon Goretzka can be compared well, because the two football professionals have a similar number of international matches. Havertz, currently injured, played 55 games for the German national team in which he scored 20 goals. Goretzka has 15 goals in 58 games so far.
Now Kai Havertz is not a classic center forward, Julian Nagelsmann even put him in front of a chain of triple in his dark discovery phase as a national coach in the left midfield. Basically, however, Havertz is a “nine”, “false nine”, “Zehner” or even half -striker much more aggressive than Goretzka, who is generally managed as “six”, but is better to be described as “eighth”, likes to move in the rooms of the “Zehner”, and can also be found in the position of the “nine”.
“Very round” story
In Milan he was served a perfect flank from Joshua Kimmich in this position, as she had previously served Tim Kleindienst and used 1-1. Goretzka, on the other hand, awarded Kimmich a second chance in the form of a perfect corner kick. Goretzka headed, it was 2-1, Germany won in San Siro and the story was “Very round”as Leon Goretzka said, who doesn’t like to say so much, especially not in the past few months.
He also received praise from the national coach, just like for his sporting performance in the first leg of the Nations League quarter -finals. “His clever Move was that he didn’t always comment on everything and remained calm”said Nagelsmann over the months in which Goretzka was not at all good to speak to the national team and probably also the national coach.
Missed home
Nagelsmann had not nominated Goretzka for the European Championship in Germany, and he founded that a decision “In the interest of the team” to have hit. Even then, this delivered room for interpretation, and even today, after the successful comeback, it remains open why exactly Leon Goretzka missed the European Championship in his own country.
At the latest when Emre Can instead of Goretzka was nominated for the penultimate Aleksandar Pavlović, it was clear that the football performance could not have been the first criterion. Goretzka did not play an outstanding season 23/24, but still a solid. The fact that he plays significantly better in the current season and therefore only earned a nomination is neither to be proven from the data nor from the impressions.
From sorted to a regular player
In any case, the history of Leon Goretzka is very round, as Goretzka would probably say, because after the missed European Championship, it was also put into the shop window by FC Bayern in summer. There was only no customer, and so Goretzka stayed in the squad and then even found himself on the square when Palhinha and Pavlović failed.
“I haven’t said so much yet, and I’ll leave it”said Goretzka in Milan, and therefore it will probably remain open what he thinks of Nagelsmann’s argument that Toni Kroos came back at the time, and therefore Goretzka did not need it at the European Championship.
Real Madrid’s world star, which has now resigned, has a significantly different profile than Goretzka, who is said to have thought of withdrawing from the national team. At least that Joshua Kimmich said about his friend, nothing was heard about Goretzka himself.
Two disappointing World championships
Leon Goretzka, born a good 30 years ago in Bochum, has been playing in the national team since spring 2014. At the World Cup in Brazil, however, he was not there, just as little as the European Championship two years later in France.
The 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Pan European EM 2021 and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are the big tournaments in which Leon Goretzka took part. Maybe that’s why he really didn’t think about resignation, because there is still something to catch up. The three big tournaments with Goretzka are among the big disappointments of the German national soccer team.
In the European Championships in 2024, this also came in the quarter -finals, but the tournament is the final proof that the German football fans have again closed the German national team into their heart. Immediately after the defeat in the quarter -finals against Spain, the national coach said that he wanted to be world champion in 2026.
The Nations League, in which the second leg against Italy is coming up in Dortmund on Sunday (March 23, 2025), he sees as an important stage on the route to get Germany used to win again.
Goretzka probably again part of the solid trunk
Nagelsmann and his staff have caught a plan that is supposed to bring the fifth star on the jersey, and this plan includes that “13, 14 players” already intended to fill a place in the squad for the World Cup. The national coach did not yet give names, but that Kimmich belongs, just like Antonio Rüdiger, Jonathan Tah, Marc-André Ter Stegen, Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz and Florian Wirtz, that is obvious.
Since Thursday, since the victory in Italy, Leon Goretzka has also been among the players who have been an integral part of the plan. In any case, there are no obvious reasons to rule out Leon Goretzka.