The last game of a German B national team took place on November 15, 2005 in Mattersburg in beautiful Burgenland. The German B-Elf, which operated under the programmatic title “Team 2006” in view of the World Cup the following summer, won 5-2 in Austria and, in addition to a certain Mario Gomez Garcia of VfB Stuttgart, the goalscorers included a player named Fabian Gerber, who was employed at Mainz 05: One would later play 78 appearances in Germany’s top team, the other switched to OFI Crete and FC Ingolstadt in his further professional life.
The spectrum of the DFB selection coached by the honorable teacher Erich Rutemöller was quite broad – corresponding to the not very extensive range of internationally presentable professionals that the Bundesliga offered at the time. “I don’t get euphoric easily, but today was just great,” praised Rutemöller after the resounding victory in Mattersburg – but in the end none of his students made it into Jürgen Klinsmann’s World Cup squad.
If there were a “Team 2024” on home soil today with a view to the next big tournament or, as in the past, a so-called B national team, then Hansi Flick and his adjutants Marcus Sorg and Danny Röhl would have had much less trouble in the past few days. They could have benefited from the selection that their DFB colleagues had already met. However, the coaching staff of the national team came together this week from Monday to Thursday in order to, among other things, draw up the list of up to 55 candidates that the DFB must present to the world association Fifa on Friday as a provisional World Cup squad.
Who could be a World Cup surprise: Moukoko? Pity? mukhtar? pitcher?
In the next step, those responsible will select the 26 players from this group who will then be allowed to travel to Muscat/Oman on November 15 to prepare for the World Cup in (virtually) neighboring Qatar. Should Flick and his followers think of another footballer that they absolutely want to take with them in the meantime – then they would have been unlucky. Because the list of 55 players is binding, there will not be a replacement. The report to Fifa serves to involve the anti-doping authorities, and all players affected will receive the appropriate conditions.
Flick intends to more or less exhaust the generous quota and, in keeping with his meticulous manner, feels obliged to personally inform the chosen ones of their status. That’s a top priority for him. He should save himself the trouble of notifying Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich or Ilkay Gündogan, but beyond the usual names on his cast list, the shadow cabinet inevitably comes up with surprising personal details. Flick has probably already had some exciting phone calls.
As far as the names on the 55-man list are concerned, data protection has so far been successfully protected at the DFB. But there will definitely be one or two surprises, at least that’s what we hear. The list will not be made public. The audience can speculate: Are the U-21 internationals Youssoufa Moukoko and Freiburg’s Kevin Schade among them? At least Moukoko is said to have recently aroused increased interest. Do the coaches even look as far as Nashville/Tennessee, where the 27-year-old Berliner Hany Mukhtar became the top scorer in the US MLS league? Bremen’s striker Niclas Füllkrug, 29.
The players who occupy the last places on Flick’s list can look forward to the recognition. In the opinion of the coaching staff, however, the actual circle of contenders for the 26 German World Cup tickets does not include more than 35 players. However, it is expressly desired that the nominees in places 36 to 55 see their promotion as motivation and really try again.