National team
Ray of light in the DFB gloom: EM “clear goal” for Thiaw
Germany’s Malick Thiaw (r) comes in for a header against Poland’s Jan Bednarek. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
There is a ray of hope in the DFB sadness in Warsaw. Malick Thiaw defends with ‘personality’ in international debut and also impresses a celebrity at his side.
During training, the TV cameras and photographers’ lenses were suddenly focused on a tree-tall footballer who had not previously been a popular national team motif. Malick Thiaw has suddenly become a ray of light in the DFB gloom.
Among all the German losers, the bold defensive debutant was the only winner in the 0-1 draw against Poland in Warsaw. The defender from AC Milan, who was trained as a professional at FC Schalke 04, also struggled with the “unnecessary defeat”. However, he was not to blame for the next DFB frustration.
Thiaw stands out from an insecure DFB-Elf
Hansi Flick even highlighted Thiaw as the “highlight” of the next failed international match. The youngster played “very solidly” and “very maturely”, praised the national coach. Antonio Rüdiger was also very impressed after his 60th international match. “He played great and showed personality. It was a very, very good debut, very, very positive,” the 30-year-old Real Madrid centre-back told Thiaw. During the district game, he then promptly belonged to the illustrious group around Champions League winners Ilkay Gündogan, Toni Rüdiger and Emre Can during training on the Frankfurt DFB campus.
In an unsettled national team, Thiaw filled the responsible job as a central defensive player in the second three-chain test after the wild 3: 3 against Ukraine, alongside the internationally experienced Antonio Rüdiger and Thilo Kehrer. “Of course I have to talk a lot in the middle. But I have two top people next to me. And Toni in particular has helped me a lot here from day one,” said the 1.94 meter tall Thiaw.
On the day of the game, he learned from Flick that he would play. But he had already guessed it, “because I was in the starting XI in training”. Thiaw went into the duels robustly, including against Poland’s top star Robert Lewandowski. And he almost made it 1-1. Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was able to parry his shot from the turn with a reflex. “I couldn’t watch the ball closely because it was so fast. I only saw the save,” said Thiaw. Scorer on the debut – that would have been it.
Thiaw: “Home EM a clear goal for me”
DFB sports director Rudi Völler promptly cited Thiaw’s strong performance to defend Flick’s critically questioned experimental course: “Otherwise we might not have been able to see what great talent we have with Malick Thiaw in the central defender position.”
At the beginning of the year, Thiaw was still scheduled for the upcoming European Championship for U21 juniors. Now he is setting his sights on the much bigger home European Championship in 2024. “That’s a clear goal for me,” said Thiaw. The ten million euro transfer from Schalke to Milan was a career accelerator for him. “I’m incredibly grateful to Milan for the development and that they gave me the chance. I’m very satisfied with the development,” he said calmly in the stadium catacombs in Warsaw.
Next Tuesday (8.45 p.m. / RTL) he will return to Schalke. In the last European Championship test before the summer break against Colombia, he would not like to be the only “highlight” in the DFB team in Gelsenkirchen, which has been his footballing home for so long.