EM of the U21 juniors
DFB President: “It’s a difficult mission to defend the title”
Bernd Neuendorf is the President of the DFB. photo
© Carmen Jaspersen/dpa
The German U21 starts in the immediate preparation for the European Championship. DFB President Neuendorf points to the great challenge – and is confident.
Despite all the optimism for the German U21 national team, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf also pointed out the major challenge of the European Championship.
“I spoke to Antonio Di Salvo for a long time, he makes a very confident impression. Of course, a title defense mission is difficult because you can’t basically fall back on the same people as in the last tournament,” said the President of the German Football Association ran. “The U21s are always undergoing major changes. But that’s the way it should be. We want to promote players to the senior national team, which we’ve succeeded in doing.”
Most recently, Malick Thiaw made his debut for the team of national coach Hansi Flick in the 0-1 draw against Poland. “Of course it’s a shame for us because Malick is an important player for us, he was the captain of this team. But at the end of the day we’re doing everything for the success of the senior national team,” said U21 coach Di Salvo previously. At the European title two years ago, Di Salvo was still assistant coach under Stefan Kuntz, who is now the national coach in Turkey.
U21 team with EM start against Israel
The German U21s left the training camp in South Tyrol for Georgia on Sunday. The start against Israel is on Thursday (6:00 p.m.) in Kutaisi. Other group opponents are the Czech Republic (June 25) and England (June 28). The most important German youth team is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Apart from the hosts France, the three best teams from the European Championship are there. England are competing as Great Britain at the Summer Games and as a result are unable to qualify.
Neuendorf hopes that after the U17s won the European Championship in May, the U21s will also make a convincing impression. “We have good talents and we can’t always say that they don’t exist. We won the U17 European Championship, and we showed there too that there are good youngsters, good youth work in the clubs and also at the DFB”, said the 61-year-old. “I think that will also show in the U21 tournament. I’m very confident that we can go very, very far.”
In Georgia, the nominated Finn Ole Becker from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim joins the team. Di Salvo had reacted to the injury of Ansgar Knauff (Eintracht Frankfurt). Jordan Beyer (FC Burnley) and Jan Thielmann (1. FC Köln) had previously had to leave injured.