Cologne (dpa) – The German U-21 European champion Salih Özcan wants to play for Turkey in the future. Özcan deliberately decided against the prospect of a possible future German senior international. The midfielder of 1. FC Köln announced this via Instagram.
The 24-year-old was immediately called up by Turkish national coach Stefan Kuntz for the international match against Italy on Tuesday (8:45 p.m.). Born in Germany, Özcan had gone through all the youth teams of the German Football Association (DFB) from the U15s onwards.
“At this point I would like to thank the German national coach Hansi Flick, who had good discussions with me and showed me an attractive perspective,” wrote Özcan. His decision does not diminish “my respect for Germany and the DFB team one bit,” wrote Özcan, who had become European champion under Kuntz with the German U21 last year.