A hit on “Boxing Day” the premier league brought Vitaly Janelt to the headlines. The FC man Brentford plays under the radar in England, but is definitely a candidate for the German national team.
Of the “Boxing Day” is in english premier league a very special thing. Whole families are almost magically drawn from the dining table to the football stadium on Boxing Day.
The traditional game day is a highlight in the season calendar. Wins taste better at Christmas, and so does scoring goals. A young German player was granted the privilege of scoring the first goal on this year’s “Boxing Day”. Vitaly Janelt scored for FC Brentford versus Tottenham Hotspur already after 15 minutes to 1:0. In the end it was 2:2.
From Bochum to the Premier League
For most German fans, the native of Hamburg plays under the radar in England. This may be due to the fact that he has not yet played a Bundesliga game. The 24-year-old from Hamburg was trained at HSV and RB Leipzig as a youth. From there he was loaned out to VfL Bochum in January 2017 and moved completely to the west club in the second Bundesliga in the summer of 2018. In October 2020 we went to FC Brentford in English Championshipthe second division on the island.
Under head coach Thomas Frank, Janelt played in defensive midfield and made 41 league appearances in his first season, mostly in the starting XI. He finished third with the west London club and rose above the playoffs into the Premier League. In April 2022 he extended his contract early until 2026.
Regular player with the “Bees”
Janelt is also in the top league “bees” indispensable. In his first year he made 31 league appearances (four goals) and helped keep Brentford in class as a freshman. He has played 16 games this season and the goal against Tottenham was his second goal of the season.
In defensive midfield, the left foot has outstanding duel values. Again and again he intercepts balls and initiates attacks with deep runs. Janelt can also be used variably, against Tottenham he played in eighth position. After 17 matchdays, he and his team are in a brilliant position – 20 points currently mean tenth place.
Market value skyrockets
Janelt was a bargain for Brentford at the time. He moved to the island for 600,000 euros, experts now see his market value at 16 million euros – that’s more than 26 times as much.
2021 U21 European Champion
As far as the German national team is concerned, Janelt went through all youth teams. He also played ten games for the U21s under coach Stefan Kuntz and was also at the 2021 European Championship, where Germany won the title. He was substituted on four times at the tournament. Vitaly’s name is Janelt, by the way, because his parents have a preference for names with a V. His brothers are named Vincent, Victor and Vitus.
youthful sin in Albania
Meanwhile, his career was on the brink. During a training camp for the German U19s in Albania, Janelt and a teammate set fire to their hotel room while smoking shisha. The duo had to travel home at their own expense. Janelt then flew out of the youth boarding school at RB Leipzig, where he was under contract at the time.
A man for the national team
But that’s all a thing of the past, and national coach Hansi Flick sees it that way. In any case, Janelt is said to have been on Flick’s 55-strong XXL squad list for the World Cup in Qatar.
In the German national team, the defensive and central midfield is occupied by Joshua Kommich, Leon Goretzka and Ilkay Gündogan. Contenders for your free place are Julian Weigl, Emre Can, Maximilian Arnold and Anton Stach.
But also Vitaly Janelt. If he continues to assert himself in a strong league like the Premier League, he is definitely a candidate for a squad place at the European Championship in his own country in two years.
Happy about Flick’s visits
In any case, Flick has already traveled to England to see Janelt in action. He remains modest at first. “Of course it’s nice when he’s just there and watching, even if I haven’t received a call-up yet. But I’m not stressing about it at all.”he said before the World Cup in an interview with “Sky”: “I just have to prove every week here in Brentford why I deserve it and that’s what my job is. I always say it would be a nice bonus and if it comes I’m very happy. As long as that hasn’t happened, I have to do my best here every week to make the decision as difficult as possible for him.”