DFB team – He wanted to quit when he was 12: “Late bloomer” Jonas Hofmann is Flick’s biggest winner
At the age of 12, Jonas Hofmann actually wanted to choose handball and golf and against football. Fortunately, he let himself be changed.
“We achieved our goal of 27 points. The team played with joy and fun. The team wants. That’s really great. I’m satisfied,” said Hansi Flick the 4-1 victory of the German national team at the end of the World Cup qualification in Armenia.
Flick was particularly satisfied with Jonas Hofmann. The professional from Borussia Mönchengladbach, acting as the right track player in 3-4-3, prepared the 1-0 through Kai Havertz with a sharp, perfectly timed cross into the sixteen and marked the 4-1 final score after a successful pressing action.
“Jonas”, praised the national coach afterwards, “is a very intelligent and ball-safe player with good speed. When you see how he prepared the 1-0 and also scored the goal, it was very good and clever”.
DFB team: Hofmann used in all Flick games
In the last qualifying task, which was rather insignificant from a sporting point of view, Hofmann showed how important he is for the national team. If a nomination under Joachim Löw was already a success for him, Flick let him play in all seven international matches – five of them even right from the start.
The former BVB professional established himself on the right, where Löw had desperately experimented with Lukas Klostermann in recent years. At the European Championships, the 29-year-old was part of the squad, but only watched all four games while Joshua Kimmich tilled the “problem area”.
However, Flick immediately made it clear – also as a result of Toni Kroos’ resignation – that Kimmich would play under him in defensive midfield. The competition on the right was reopened. And Hofmann asserted himself not only against Leipzig’s Klostermann, but also against Ridle Baku, who had made a name for himself with strong performances in Wolfsburg.
Flick about Hofmann: “He is there where goals are scored”
What Flick appreciates most about Hofmann is his willingness to run and pull to the goal. “That is what sets Jonas apart,” said the Löw successor after the Armenia game, “he is there where goals are scored. He is of enormous quality”.
This quality must also be demonstrated against one or the other stronger opponent in the coming deployment period in the spring. “Then the defensive work will be even more important. But I think I can handle that too,” said Hofmann. If he is also convincing in such games, it can be assumed that Flick plans to use him as a regular in Qatar.
A special success story, if you not only consider the past time of the “late bloomer” in the DFB dress. Flick’s biggest winner to date almost stopped playing football at the age of twelve, as he recently said in an interview with DFB TV betrayed.
DFB team: Hofmann wanted to quit when he was 12
“Back then I played soccer, handball and golf in parallel. When I was twelve years old, my parents said: ‘Now decide on two sports. We can’t drive you 100 kilometers around the area every day.’ So I wanted to stop playing football, “said the Heidelberg native.
A viewing tournament with a selection from Baden changed Hofmann’s mind: “That same evening, the youth coordinator from TSG Hoffenheim called me and said that they would like to bring me home. Fortunately, I knew what a great opportunity this would be is. So instead of playing football, I stopped playing golf. “
The right decision.