Germany head coach Joachim Löw has announced a 26-member squad for the upcoming friendly matches against Spain (March 23 in Düsseldorf) and Brazil (March 27 in Berlin).
Löw called up eight 2014 FIFA World Cup winners and 17 2017 FIFA Confederation Cup winners to his squad. Missing from the squad are Borussia Dortmund duo Marco Reus and Mario Götze, Amin Younes from Ajax Amsterdam while captain Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich is still injured.
“We made a conscious effort to start this World Cup year with a larger group of players. It’s important to us that we concentrate on working with the players and to also start having more personal dialogue with them as well,” Löw told.
“We’re obviously aware that the next few weeks are very important in their clubs’ seasons. That is their priority right now. All the more important, however, is that they are aware of how critical these games are in our selection process for the final squad that we will take to the World Cup in the summer. Success and performance is the most important thing to us, so we want to see that the players are ready to give their all to achieve that. If we want to be successful in Russia, we have to regain the hunger and drive that took us all the way four years ago.”
“We have a huge pool of players to select from for a lot of positions, but for others it’s not so much. For those positions we need players who are flexible and can play in multiple roles. However, the door for World Cup selection is definitely not closed, and there are some players who we will be keeping a watchful eye on over the next few weeks,” Löw added.
The preliminary FIFA World Cup squad will be announced at the Deutsches Fußballmuseum (German Football Museum) in Dortmund on 15th May.
Germany Squad
Goalkeepers
Bernd Leno (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Marc-André ter Stegen (FC Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Paris Saint-Germain)
Defenders
Jerome Boateng (FC Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Mats Hummels (FC Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha BSC), Antonio Rüdiger (FC Chelsea), Niklas Süle (FC Bayern Munich)
Midfielders/Forwards
Julian Brandt (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Emre Can (FC Liverpool), Julian Draxler (FC Paris St. Germain), Leon Goretzka (FC Schalke 04), Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City), Sami Khedira (Juventus Turino), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Müller (FC Bayern Munich), Mesut Özil (FC Arsenal), Sebastian Rudy (FC Bayern Munich), Leroy Sane (Manchester City), Lars Stindl (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Sandro Wagner (FC Bayern Munich), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig)
Follow me on Social Media