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⏱️ Only 21 Bundesliga mins: can this Germany debutant oust a team-mate?
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- ⏱️ Only 21 Bundesliga mins: can this Germany debutant oust a team-mate?
⏱️ Only 21 Bundesliga mins: can this Germany debutant oust a team-mate?
A full eleven players were called up by Jürgen Klopp for the German national team for the first time on Thursday. Some of the names hardly caused any surprise. It was at least somewhat foreseeable that top talent Finn Jeltsch , SGE target man Younes Ebnoutalib , or right-back Philipp Treu would make the oversized squad.
Other call-ups even made die-hard football nerds sit up and take notice. Alongside Hoffenheim 's Bambasé Conte and Elversberg's Felix Keidel, that also applies to Max Rosenfelder .
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Hardly any match practice – and still called up by Germany
For the SC Freiburg centre-back, this DFB call-up is without doubt the absolute highlight of his career so far. At the same time, no other debutant arrives with so little match practice. After all, the 23-year-old played just 21 of a possible 270 minutes in the first three matches of this Bundesliga season. A similar picture emerged last season as well. Persistent injury problems limited Rosenfelder to just 12 league appearances and 489 minutes of playing time.
By now, the Freiburg academy product is fit again. Even so, he is not first choice. In Freiburg's well-drilled back line, Philipp Lienhart and Matthias Ginter are ahead of him. Rosenfelder was only handed two starts against Motherwell FC in the Conference League qualifiers.
And that is exactly why one question presents itself: could the youngster have snatched the DFB ticket from a club teammate who actually deserved it more? For months now, Ginter has been piling up arguments in his favour. The 2014 World Cup winner had a strong season last year, played a major role in Freiburg reaching the Europa League final, and contributed three goals and five assists in the Bundesliga. The start to the current season could hardly have gone any better either. Freiburg are top of the table with the maximum haul of nine points and have conceded just one goal so far. Ginter has already chipped in with three assists once again.
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So if you apply a strict merit-based principle, you would logically end up with the seasoned veteran rather than his teammate.
But it is not quite that simple. Rosenfelder brings a profile that is extremely rare in German football. The 1.86 m defender is not only a centre-back, but can also play at right-back. So far, so normal. Ginter has also featured out wide in defence in the past. But Rosenfelder also possesses almost absurd pace at the same time. With a top speed of nearly 36 km/h, he is one of the fastest German footballers around.
And then there is Klopp's XXL squad. With 44 players, it offers plenty of room to get to know new faces and fill in a few blank pages. Max Rosenfelder is exactly that kind of case. It is admittedly unfortunate that Matthias Ginter, of all people, has to wait longer for his return to the DFB team despite being in such strong form, but the decision is not incomprehensible.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
