Hansi Flick has nominated five debutants in the Germany squad for the upcoming fixtures against Peru and Belgium. Amongst the key players missing is Leroy Sané, Jonas Hofmann and Antonio Rüdiger, all of whom played a significant role in Flick’s World Cup squad.

“With regard to hosting EURO 2024, it’s important to us that we can present a good squad. It’s important that we look for alternatives, promote them and give them necessary time,” said Flick when explaining the changes to the squad. “We deliberately avoided using established players because we believe that we have to give new players the space to show themselves not only in training but also in the games.”

Bernd Leno returns to the squad in place of Manuel Neuer, whilst there are first call-ups for Josha Vagnoman, Marius Wolf, Felix Nmecha, Kevin Schade and Mergim Berisha.

A problem area for Flick has been the right-back position with Niklas Süle, another player who missed out this time, Lukas Klostermann and Thilo Kehrer, and so it’s understandable that Wolf, who has been excellent for Borussia Dortmund in 2023, makes the squad whilst Stuttgart’s Vagnoman gets an opportunity.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz also returns to the Germany squad after missing the World Cup due to a cruciate ligament injury. The 19-year-old has eight goal contributions in 12 games this season.

GGFN | Daniel Pinder