Neu-Isenburg (dpa) – It has not yet been reliably reported whether Nico Schlotterbeck eats a lot of spinach. When Freiburg’s defensive shooting star starts to celebrate his goal more and more often, as he has done recently, the muscular mountains on his arms are reminiscent of the comic hero Popeye.
Hansi Flick has also noticed the positive physical and playful development of the 22-year-old this season. It fits exactly with the unmistakable requirements for his Qatar candidates to work a little more on themselves in the World Cup year that has just begun.
Flick relies on U21 European champions
“He sets good accents,” said the national coach about the left foot. And promised: “He will definitely play his first game, that’s in the planning stage.” If Schlotterbeck celebrates his debut in the national soccer team against Israel in Sinsheim on Saturday (8.45 p.m. / ZDF), he will already be the sixth U-21 European champion from the previous year to play in the first eight games under Flick in the A-Elf ran may.
Hoffenheim’s David Raum has already made three international appearances and is very positive about the development of the junior champions. “Personally, the U21s brought me a lot. Of course, it’s great that we made it to the senior national team with a few players,” said Raum. “It’s nice when you’re together on the pitch.”
In Raum’s home stadium in Sinsheim he could form the left half of the back four with Schlotterbeck. Just like on the successful summer days of 2021, when the German U21 selection under coach Stefan Kuntz won the European Championship title with great team spirit.
In addition to Raum, Florian Wirtz, Karim Adeyemi, Lukas Nmchea and Ridle Baku are the other players in this Kuntz team, who were already used by Flick in the World Cup season and have a Qatar perspective. Anton Stach has been appointed to the current squad for the first time. His Mainz club colleague Jonathan Burkhardt and Cologne’s Salih Özcan were named by the national coach as promising youngsters.
From junior to world champion – like 2009?
Comparisons with the golden generation of junior European Championship winners from 2009 come to mind. At that time, Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Dennis Aogo, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil made the leap to the World Cup in South Africa just one year after the title in the great upheaval under national coach Joachim Löw and started there. All but Aogo even became world champions in Rio de Janeiro in 2014.
Flanking specialist Raum has already made the right career move by moving from SpVgg Greuther Fürth to Hoffenheim. Schlotterbeck, who has scored four Bundesliga goals since December, has yet to weigh this up. At Borussia Dortmund and even at Bayern Munich, he is traded as a candidate in the big defender carousel. His contract in Breisgau runs until mid-2023. Another year in Freiburg might be career-enhancing. Regular assignments would increase his chances of winning the World Cup – muscle shows included, of course.