The Bayern quartet drove up in a minibus. With embarrassed faces, Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry quickly went to the team hotel of the national soccer team late on Sunday evening after the Munich team had lost 2-1 at Bayer Leverkusen a few hours earlier.
Shortly thereafter, Hansi Flick arrived in Frankfurt/Main in a limousine together with Rudi Völler. The national coach and the new sports director wrote a few autographs.
The newcomers were already there. Along with Kevin Schade and Josha Vagnoman, Mergim Berisha also arrived on time. The FC Augsburg striker is one of the sextet that Flick called up for the first time in the A squad for the start of the year with the friendlies on Friday in Mainz against Peru and three days later in Cologne against Belgium.
“I’m looking forward to the guys, that I can get to know them and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said the 24-year-old on arrival in Frankfurt/Main. “Sure, I was a bit nervous,” Berisha reported from the first phone call with the national coach. He had missed Flick’s call, but the DFB head coach answered the call back.
“I’m here, I want to present myself from the best side,” emphasized Berisha, who won the European Championship title with the U21s in 2021.
Flick: The squad should be “broader”.
In addition to Berisha, Vagnoman and Schade, Felix Nmecha, Marius Wolf and Malick Thiaw, who was nominated for the injured Armel Bella Kotchap on Sunday, are also part of the DFB team for the first time.
Flick will start preparing for the European Championship at home in the summer of 2024 with a public training session. On Monday, from 4.30 p.m. onwards, fans can watch the national players in the Brentanobad stadium in Frankfurt/Main during a regeneration session.
Since many players – such as the four pros from FC Bayern Munich or goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen from FC Barcelona – were still in action on Sunday, the national coach only started on Monday with the usual recovery exercises on the following day. Before training, Flick, DFB sports director Rudi Völler and U21 coach Antonio Di Salvo will speak at a press conference (11 a.m.).
Twelve players who were still part of the squad in Qatar when the World Cup was eliminated early on are not in the squad, including temporary fixtures such as Thomas Müller, Ilkay Gündogan, Leroy Sane, Antonio Rüdiger and Niklas Süle. “We want a squad that is broader,” said Flick, explaining this decision.