Player doesn’t know yet
Nagelsmann has decided who will be dropped from the European Championship squad
06.06.2024, 19:31
One is still too many: The national team is preparing for the European Championship dress rehearsal against Greece with 27 footballers, but only 26 are allowed to go to the home tournament. National coach Julian Nagelsmann reveals that the decision has already been made. Only something extraordinary could force a rethink.
Julian Nagelsmann has made the decision about the candidate to be eliminated from his final European Championship squad. The national coach will not reveal which player will be excluded from the national football team at the home European Championship until Friday evening after the last friendly match against Greece. (Kick-off 8.45 p.m./RTL and in the live ticker at ntv.de) The player has not yet been informed of the decision either, Nagelsmann reported at the press conference in Mönchengladbach.
“The decision has been made. We will make the final announcement after the game,” said Nagelsmann. He had “discussed various options” with his coaching staff, the national coach reported. The course of the game against Greece was no longer decisive for the selection, unless a player was seriously injured. “The decision has been made in principle,” said Nagelsmann, “if nothing unusual happens.” “One or two conversations with players” had already taken place.
Nagelsmann is allowed to call up 26 players to his tournament squad. Nagelsmann called up 27 players for preparation. Maximilian Beier from TSG Hoffenheim and Robin Koch from Eintracht Frankfurt were recently considered candidates for elimination. Nagelsmann once again asserted that no player deserved to be eliminated.
The tournament squad must be registered with UEFA by midnight on Friday. Players can then only be replaced up until the first match against Scotland on June 14 in Munich, provided that a UEFA doctor confirms an injury that makes it impossible for the team to play in the European Championship. If a goalkeeper is injured, a replacement goalkeeper can be substituted during the tournament.
Against Greece, Kai Havertz will once again be preferred to Niclas Füllkrug in attack, reported Nagelsmann. “If Kai performs, he’ll have a bit of an edge,” he said. Toni Kroos and Antonio Rüdiger, who missed the friendly against Ukraine (0-0) on Monday after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, are also in the starting eleven. Leroy Sané is “an option” after his long-term pubic bone problem, said Nagelsmann. He has “a quality that we don’t want to do without, couldn’t do without.”