World champion as a hardship case
Unfortunately, Mats Hummels is probably too good for the European Championships
By Till Erdenberger
May 15, 2024, 2:00 p.m
Julian Nagelsmann’s European Championship squad is slowly being put together in front of the public, and the protagonists have long been in the picture. There is probably no happy ending for Mats Hummels. The in-form BVB veteran has a special problem.
Grandma Lotti knows that Jonathan Tah is going to the European Championships, at “Hisar Fresh Food” in Berlin they announced the nomination of Antonio Rüdiger and GZSZ meanie Jo Gerner delighted his fan Joshua Kimmich with the news: You’ll be there in the summer when the German one National soccer team wants to become European champions at home. For the interested football public, a puzzle is being put together piece by piece these days, which will ultimately result in the German European Championship squad.
But the big picture is known to the protagonists; Nagelsmann has long since informed all European Championship drivers. Mats Hummels, it’s not official yet but it’s no secret, won’t be in the team photo. The Dortmund player’s strange problem: He is probably too good to get a place in the squad.
“We have to trust that”
The 2014 world champion himself recently headed BVB into the final of the Champions League, and the veteran was named “Man of the Match” in both the first leg and second leg of the semi-final duel with Paris Saint-Germain against superstar Kylian Mbappé. But it won’t be enough for national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s squad. “Of course he would certainly have deserved it in terms of performance. But these are certainly also considerations where other things also play a role,” said teammate Niclas Füllkrug recently after his own nomination and suggested between the lines that Hummels was unlikely to get a confirmation. “The national coach will also have his idea. We all have to trust that.”
The national coach’s ideas are not based on old merits – as was too often and ultimately self-destructive in the past under his predecessors Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick. It’s about more recent developments – and Nagelsmann hasn’t forgotten how well his ensemble worked in the victories in France and against the Netherlands in March. Hummels was missing, the momentum was gone for the 34-year-old at DFB level, in central defense his Champions League final opponent Antonio Rüdiger from Real Madrid and the newly crowned German champion Jonathan Tah have established themselves as the duo of choice.
“There’s no question: If everyone stays healthy and continues to perform, we definitely won’t swap ten players in the summer. Actually not five, maybe one or two – plus injured ones,” said Nagelsmann after the European Championship encouragement. Of all people, Hummels’ BVB colleague Schlotterbeck is now one of the few who was able to play his way back into the squad.
“Compete to win the title”
Hummels’ “problem”, which ultimately cost him the nomination, is his excessive quality. Nagelsmann emphasized several times that it’s not always about finding the best individual players – but rather those “who fit together best.” Nagelsmann sees the challengers Nico Schlotterbeck and Robin Koch as a suitable complement to the established Tah and Rüdiger – and not the established Hummels. He was looking for “young challengers”. “The mood carriers are those who accept this role.” Schlotterbeck and Koch alone must have registered their nomination with the greatest gratitude.
That is consistent, but the non-nomination of the experienced world champion, who is currently in extremely good form, was anything but easy for Nagelsmann. Ultimately, two of the mantras that the national coach used to get the sluggish DFB team going again just in time for the European Championships collided in Hummel’s hardship case: “Form pays tribute” and maintaining squad hygiene. “We are competing to win the title,” the national coach announced unequivocally. With 78 international matches, a World Cup title and an outstanding Champions League season behind him, Nagelsmann apparently sees no role for Hummels in his squad in which he can help the DFB team on the way to their big goal .