National team
Sané feels in the “flow”: a pat on the back from Nagelsmann
High-speed player Leroy Sané is in top form. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
Leroy Sané always had the image of a little boor. That has recently changed. The high-speed player is in top form. National coach Nagelsmann persuaded him to make a rare appearance.
Julian Nagelsmann couldn’t help but laugh and hit Leroy Sané like a friend on the shoulder. It has been a long time since the 27-year-old sat on the media podium before the European Championship test against Turkey. The national soccer coach probably recognized the special moment when he asked why.
“I’m not someone who likes to talk a lot,” said the Bayern attacker apologetically. But Nagelsmann encouraged him, perhaps even persuaded him a little, to come along “and answer the questions,” said Sané in the large basement room of the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
Sané wants to “give back performance”
Sané did not have to fear any major verbal pitfalls. Things are going well for the high-speed player with the DFB team and FC Bayern this season. Even today he is guaranteed a place in the German starting eleven. Nagelsmann likes the game of his former Bayern player and has found an unusual but successful dual leadership for his 4-2-2-2 system with him and Niclas Füllkrug.
Sané enjoys the sporting freedom, he said, and wants to “give back performance”. He will be playing his 58th international match against Turkey. He has scored 13 goals for Germany, most recently in a 2-1 win against France in September. He said he felt in “flow.”
Contract extension with Munich?
And yet he still has that eternal boyishness about him. Seriousness is not his core competency. Plus an exalted fashion style. He won’t get rid of the image so quickly. The future of Bayern should not become an issue for Sané until the second half of the season at the earliest. The contract in Munich runs until the summer after next. “I haven’t thought about it yet,” he said about a possible extension.
At the home European Championships in 2024, things should finally go well in a big tournament. In 2016 he was at the European Championships as a young star, but only played once as a joker. In 2018 he was surprisingly left out of Joachim Löw’s final World Cup squad. He was unable to score a goal at the European Championships in 2021. And last year in Qatar he was injured before the Japan opener. Before he was 100 percent fit again, the tournament was over for Germany. “I have big goals and I always try to motivate myself,” said Sané.