After strong performance for Bavaria
Goretzka about DFB: “If Julian should call me, I’ll pick it up”
10.03.2025 – 8:44 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
At FC Bayern, Leon Goretzka turned from sorted out to the regular player. Can he now do that in the national team?
The 0-2 defeat of the German national football team against Austria in November 2023 had followed: After the DFB team had lost 2: 3 against Turkey a few days earlier, national coach Julian Nagelsmann pulled the ripcord.
For the first caps of the European Championship year 2024, Nagelsmann completely turned the DFB squad over. One of the victims: Leon Goretzka. The FC Bayern midfield player has not been nominated for the national team since then and also missed the home European Championship last summer.
When he was on the siding in the club at the beginning of the current season and should actually be sold, no one would have thought that Goretzka could return to the DFB team. But Goretzka stayed in Munich and struggled. While he was partly in the squad in the first games of the season, he is now one of the regulars under coach Vincent Kompany and convinces with numerous good performances.
Could he even also return to the national team? At the Bayern press conference before the round of 16 second legs in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen, Goretzka said when asked: “I am not in contact with Julian (Nagelsmann, editor’s note).”
Nevertheless, Goretzka is open to a return: “It is no secret that I made every single of my international matches with great pride and of course I would also like to be there.” At the moment, however, he doesn’t worry about it.
“If Julian should call me, I’ll take off,” said Goretzka. However, he also indicated that there could still be a need for discussion between him and the national coach. You can still discuss “some things that happened in summer”, says Goretzka.
As part of the nominations for the home European Championship, there were rumors that Nagelsmann had feared that Goretzka could not accept a possible reservist role and bring unrest into the team. That’s why he didn’t nominate him.
The next DFB nominations for the National League quarter-final games against Italy will take place next Thursday. The games take place on March 20 and 23.
Return, at least for his position in the club, Goretzka now also received from record national player Lothar Matthäus. In his column for the TV station Sky, Matthew wrote: “I never understood the criticism of Goretzka and was always on his side.” He sees in Goretzka, among other things, the Bundesliga player who comes closest to him. “I’ve been following Leon for ten years and he already reminded me of the young Lothar. Box-to-box was always my mission over the entire career.”
He was happy for Goretzka and Bayern fans could be proud of him. “He was deported publicly, but he continued to fight and bitten through. This not only shows what he is for a footballer, but also what a person he is, what mentality he brings.”
Goretzka himself reacted to the statements on Monday with humor: “I couldn’t understand the criticism,” he joked. “Of course I am happy when Lothar said that.”