After a two-year break, Karim Adeyemi returns to the U21 team on Friday for the game in Bulgaria (6.15 p.m., live ticker at sportschau.de). It is supposed to be a step backwards for progress – the struggling Dortmund team has its sights set on the A team again in the medium term.
In BVB’s seven Bundesliga games, Adeyemi has only been in the starting line-up twice so far. He hasn’t played through at all yet, he was substituted on three times. Particularly bitter for the winger, who moved from RB Salzburg to Dortmund last year for around 30 million euros: in the last two home games against Wolfsburg (1-0) and Union Berlin (4-2), he warmed up until injury time – and wasn’t even substituted on.
Reus and Bynoe-Gittens are currently ahead of him
Old star Marco Reus and young star Jamie Bynoe-Gittens have currently passed him in sporting terms, Adeyemi is still waiting for his first goal of the season and also his first assist of the season.
When Julian Nagelsmann restarted as national coach, he was not in the squad. Instead, the U21 team with coach Antonio Di Salvo invited him, and unlike recently with the Dutch team with Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Gravenberch, Adeyemi reportedly didn’t think for a second about turning it down.
“The goal is the A-National team”
“My focus is on the U21. I’m trying to offer myself here and play a good game and then go back to my club to offer myself there”he said on Tuesday (October 10th, 2023) in an online media panel in Frankfurt/Main. “Of course the goal is to get back into the senior national team and show what you can do.”
The Dortmund player is back with the juniors for the first time since winning the U21 European Championship in 2021. Since then he has appeared four times for the senior national team. He can’t really explain why things aren’t going well at the club: “I don’t know of any reasons. There are a few phases in life where things just don’t work out. That’s how it is for me. You get out of every phase, and I do my best to do that.”
No problem with personal criticism
Adeyemi believes that the commitment for Germany can definitely be helpful: “The U21 is very good for me because I can give it my all in every training session and hopefully play a good game.”
He says about how he deals with criticism: “If criticism is expressed against me personally, that’s not a problem. If it’s against family, friends or my girlfriend, it goes too far for me too. Those are the last people to blame. I’m the one who stops on the pitch and isn’t playing so well at the moment. It’s no one else’s fault.”
Conversation with Nagelsmann
He has now had contact with Julian Nagelsmann and that has been very helpful: “He spoke to me and said it would be good for me to come here. I’m here and I’m happy about it. I can go into it confident and I’m absolutely ready for the game.”