After eight Bundesliga matchdays, Niclas Füllkrug is somewhat surprisingly the top scorer. No striker from FC Bayern, BVB or any other Champions League club is currently shooting through the entire league, but the nine from promoted Werder Bremen. At the latest after his brace in the 5-1 home win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Füllkrug is now even being discussed as a serious candidate for the World Cup in Qatar.
Füllkrug went through the youth national teams of the DFB up to the U20s and scored eight goals in various U-teams for Germany. The 29-year-old, who meanwhile has played more than 240 first and second division games, hasn’t been enough for a nomination for the senior national team.
That could change before the World Cup in Qatar, which will start on November 20th. An idea that is far from being well received everywhere.
Ex-national player Dietmar Hamann doesn’t think much of actually letting Füllkrug storm for Germany at the World Cup: “I don’t have the imagination. He does it wonderfully, that’s not an issue at all. But what does that say about our team if we talk about filling jugs four weeks before the World Cup?” asked the Vice World Champion from 2002 on Sunday evening at “sky“.
After his six and seven goals this season against Gladbach, record national player Lothar Matthäus, among others, toyed with the idea of seeing the Bremen center forward play under national coach Hansi Flick at the World Cup.
Werder-Knipser wants to “continue to perform”
“What he did last year in the second division and now is outstanding. Only, we know that we haven’t had a striker for two years. You could have taken the boys with you, that you the players and the environment, everything But to say now that we have to take one with us or that we have to take a filling jug with us to the World Cup: I think that says more about our problems than about the player himself,” Hamann replied to this demand.
He also mentioned Simon Terodde from FC Schalke and Nils Petersen from SC Freiburg in the same breath. If so, these players should have received an invitation to join the national team in the run-up to the World Cup. But not just before the tournament, as Hamann emphasized.
The player himself, on the other hand, wants to continue working for the dream of every Bundesliga striker, the call to a World Cup: “Of course I’m very happy when people who know about football praise my game. But everything else doesn’t suit me in my hand. I’m trying to perform as I’m doing right now. Nothing helps except to keep working,” he said after the gala performance against Gladbach on the “Sky” microphone.