None from Borussia Dortmund, none from FC Bayern: U21 coach Stefan Kuntz flies to the Olympic football tournament in Tokyo with a rump squad. As it was five years ago, the composition of the men’s team turns out to be a puzzle. The situation is different with the competition.
The suitcases have long been packed and the plane has already taken off. U21 coach Stefan Kuntz shared his exuberant anticipation for the Olympics with the whole world. If you want to know where the men’s DFB team is, just take a look at Kuntz’s Instagram profile. So you could find out that the same machine as Brazil’s volleyball team (“all over 1.90 meters”) went to Tokyo yesterday for the Olympic Games.
In addition to Kuntz, the Brazilian volleyball players, there was also the German Olympic team on board. It should have been 22 players – 19 field players and 3 goalkeepers. With a lot of patience and negotiating skills, it has become a total of 18 professionals. Originally, Kuntz had nominated 19 medal hunters, three of whom then canceled, for which Kuntz was only able to find two substitutes. Even that caused slight displeasure at Kuntz: “I believe that no sport does not occupy all of the squad positions. I think that is not the best sign of football – with all understanding.” The problem with the Olympic tournament is that, unlike in other international matches, there is no obligation to park.
Naming the Olympic squad therefore turns out to be a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces every four (or this time five) years for the men. The previous time (and the first since 1988) HSV veteran Horst Hrubresch had taken on this task. In 2016, he even had to postpone the squad announcement by a day. In return he got a powerful team with Joshua Kimmich, Julian Weigl, Davie Selke and Julian Brandt, which took silver.
Hrubresch also had problems
This time the squad was determined on time, but with three involuntarily unoccupied places. Getting a team together at all took a lot of negotiating skills: Like Hrubresch, Kuntz agreed with the clubs to bring a maximum of two players per club. Imagine if national coach Hansi Flick had to deal with such a rule when he nominated the squad for the Qatar World Cup according to Sky apparently begins just eight days after the end of the first half of the Bundesliga.
On top of it came that first HSV defender Josha Vagnoman was injured, then Niklas Dorsch, who moved to FC Augsburg. Because the club has already released two players (Felix Uduokhai and Marco Richter), the newcomer has to stay in Bavaria. None of that really helped Kuntz when planning the Olympics. Much more angry (and probably rightly) was Kuntz about the Bundesliga Primus. Because without naming his name, the DFB coach talked about FC Bayern. “You have two or three clubs that help you very well, they support you. But at one or the other big club you don’t even get the third goalkeeper. I have to curb my emotions a bit,” he said in the ARD.
In this case it was about the (according to the FC Bayern homepage) even the fourth keeper, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann. The 22-year-old has been in the professional squad several times, but has been waiting for his debut for a long time. In the near future, that is not in sight, because with Sven Ulreich, a new old second goalkeeper has just returned to FC Bayern.
Six EM drivers for Spain
Sure, FC Bayern is in a (small) upheaval, every second with the new coach, Julian Nagelsmann, is extremely valuable, especially in preparation. Nevertheless, Hoffmann should have been given at least some playing time if no one else is going to Tokyo. Incidentally, the same picture can be found at Borussia Dortmund: There is also a new coach with Marco Rose, under whom potential Olympic drivers like Julian Brandt or Mahmoud Dahoud see a new opportunity. BVB is missing from the German squad.
The German competition shows that things could have been different. The DFB selection will play their opening game against Brazil. How competitive the Kuntz-Elf is is still unclear. Leipzig’s Benjamin Henrichs summed it up like this: “This team has never played together like this before, we have to find each other.” But Brazil is completely different. The eleven have been preparing for the tournament for almost a month. “We have ten days,” explained Henrichs.
For example, while Herthas Matheus Cunha hadn’t even been with his club since the summer break, but was preparing with the Seleção, his German colleagues Jordan Torunarigha and Arne Maier were still at the training camp in Neuruppin.
The Spaniards will probably not have a particularly long preparation either. Maybe you don’t need them either. Because unlike the DFB-Elf, coach Luis de la Fuente can draw on the full when it comes to the squad. There are a total of six EM drivers in the line-up. Among them Pedri, who was recognized by UEFA as the best young player in the European Championship. For his flight to Tokyo he risked a dispute with FC Barcelona.
Even Barça had to beg
According to media reports, Barça tried to convince the Spanish association to give up the nomination, after all, the 18-year-old has hardly missed a game with the Catalans and also played many minutes at the European Championship. There is only a two-day break before departure for Japan for the endurance runner. The fact that even FC Barcelona has to beg for one of its key players is to blame for a peculiarity in the Spanish sports law: when the football association determines its Olympic squad, Spanish clubs have to release their players.
There is no such thing in Germany. Instead, everything is based on tough agreements and long negotiations between the DFB and clubs about who will release their professionals voluntarily. Now it can be argued whether the cause or symptom of the Olympic disaffection is in men’s football. And there it can also be that the last DFB coach to win a title (U21 European Champion 2021) has to fight for each of his players, be it the fourth goalkeeper of the record champions.
A few days ago on the handball talk show “DHBspotlight”, Kuntz himself said that Germany should “not be embarrassed that there are not enough people to send 22 men to Tokyo, which unfortunately it looks like at the moment”. In total, the DFB had to report 100 possible players who could still have been nominated. Kuntz phoned the entire list, after the failure of Jacobs (change to AS Monaco) nobody was added.
In the last few weeks he hadn’t had his fist in his pocket, “it’s a dialogue,” said Kuntz: “One or the other player didn’t want to use his” chances “, also out of selfish interests. The clubs tend to forget that they also benefit when their players polish up their market value in such tournaments.
But it’s too late for all of that now. The selected 18 have been on their way for a long time and Kuntz commented shortly before departure: “But that is also good with the complaint. Otherwise we will not do justice to the boys who are full of joy for the Olympics.” Because he definitely does. And he’s not alone in that. The 33-year-old Max Kruse, who is at least able to make his comeback in the DFB dress, said: “Many of us have already watched the Olympics when we were little. That is why it is an honor to be there.”
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