They are teenagers and dream of a great football career: The DFB U17 players are currently playing a convincing European Championship tournament in Hungary. But the way to the top is still far.
A name like that alone makes dreams sprout: Paris Brunner is his name – the striker of the German U17 national team, who shot the team into the semi-finals of the current European Championship in Hungary. Brunner is an angular centre-forward with good basic speed, who is very successful in everyday storming for Borussia Dortmund. On Tuesday it is up to him and the other German talents against Poland to reach the final.
Brunner and his colleagues are the favorites in this game after having had a spotless tournament so far. In the preliminary round they won three games in three games (10:1 goals), coach Christian Wück’s team won against Switzerland in the quarter-finals (3:2 on penalties), although they were outnumbered for 75 minutes.
Paris Brunner – a rate like Moukoko
In 2020, Brunner moved from the district neighbor VfL Bochum to Borussia Dortmund, having previously played for Rot-Weiss Essen in his youth. At BVB, the 1.85 meter tall center forward sparked the next development stage: He was a reliable goalkeeper with the B-Juniors so quickly (16 goals in five games) that he was quickly promoted to the U19s at the age of 16. His record for the 22/23 season is impressive: he made a total of 28 goals in 31 competitive games. Four of them in the Youth League, in which he reached the quarter-finals with BVB.
Of course – and this is common practice for 17-year-olds these days – the tug-of-war over the great storm talent has long since begun. On an international level – after all, Brunner has already presented itself in the Uefa Youth League.
It’s the turn of the big clubs for the model athletes – above all FC Barcelona, as you can hear. The Catalans had already been brushed off at Dortmund’s jewel Youssoufa Moukoko a few months ago – the “Blaugrana” apparently want to try again at Brunner.
Danger of “lifting off” is great
Of course, it is obvious that such hype can divert a young man from the chosen path. Young people like Brunner have to keep their feet on the ground when backslappers, player agents and club agents come from all sides and try to turn their heads – it’s not easy.
However, national coach Wück is confident that his striker ace will remain on the ground. Already last winter he said to the internet portal “Goal”: “Paris is a very thoughtful player. He knows where he wants to go and what he has to invest to get there. That distinguishes him and, in my opinion, is the main reason why he has developed so rapidly in the past year.”
Talents – 200 of 11,000 end up in the Bundesliga
The big question is: How concrete are the U17 national players’ chances of achieving the big goal of professional football? The odds – even the junior international – are rather devastating.
Christian Wück – coach of the U17 team
When a soccer player joins a junior academy (NLZ) of a professional club, he competes with around 11,000 other NLZ kickers throughout Germany. Each of them can play football really well. Of these 11,000 players, only 200 end up in the Bundesliga – that’s a statistical fact.
The EM squad from 2015 may serve as an example of the difficult path that lies ahead of U17 players even after national team experience. At that time, Germany won silver in Bulgaria and only lost in the final against France (1:4). With the following defensive line-up during the tournament: Joel Abu Hanna (Bayer Leverkusen), Enes Akyol (Hertha BSC), Dzenis Burnic (Borussia Dortmund), Jonas Busam (SC Freiburg), Erdinc Karakas (VfL Bochum) and Daniel Nesseler (Bayer Leverkusen). ). All of them are around 25 years old today – you can’t call them seasoned Bundesliga professionals.
How big is the professional chance?
Paris Brunner is of course given a slightly better prognosis. He may be among those who have a real shot at making the big leap. Similar to Winsley Boteli, who was at a disadvantage with Switzerland against Germany in the quarterfinals. It’s been almost a year since Borussia Mönchengladbach announced the signing of the then 16-year-old from Servette Geneva.
Boteli is one of the greatest talents in the “Fohlenstall”, next season he will be promoted to the U19s, for which he has already made his debut and scored straight away. Since moving from Switzerland to the Lower Rhine in the summer of 2022, the attacker has scored 14 goals – in less than six months. He scored the most goals for Borussia’s U17s. In nine games, the Swiss was successful eight times.
Winsley Boteli – hope in the Gladbach “Fohlenstall”
What’s next for the attacker, who is enormously physically developed? A training camp nomination for the pros in the summer would probably come too early, even if Borussia hadn’t closed all the gaps in attack by then. But they will have him in focus in Gladbach.
Winsley Boteli (red jersey)
“Have a great team”
While Boteli can now go on vacation after a tough season, the German U17 talents still have big tasks ahead of them. By reaching the European Championship semi-finals, you have already secured qualification for the upcoming World Cup in November. But now, of course, the team wants to win the European title first. Coach Wück believes in big things: “We have a great team. It’s just fun to watch the boys play!”