Jürgen Klopp opened his tenure as Germany manager with an unconventional move, summoning 44 players and splitting them into two separate squads for the upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures—his first test since succeeding Julian Nagelsmann.
The biggest surprise came with the exclusion of Deniz Undav, despite his standout performances at the recent World Cup, where he scored three goals and provided two assists, establishing himself as one of Germany’s key attacking assets before their penalty shootout exit against Paraguay. Leroy Sané was also omitted, while Klopp left out goalkeeper Oliver Baumann, who had filled in between the posts during the recent absences of Manuel Neuer and Marc-André ter Stegen.
Conversely, the new manager restored Ter Stegen as the starting goalkeeper, capitalizing on his consistent minutes at Ajax following his recovery from injuries that kept him out of the World Cup.
The call-up featured 11 first-time international additions, most notably Younes Ibn Taleb, Vitaly Janelt, Mika Baur, Bam収sité Conté, Felix Keidel, Finn Jeltsch, Hannes Behrens, and Max Rosenfelder.
Klopp divided the selection into two groups. The first group includes Ter Stegen, Alexander Nübel, and Finn Dahmen in goal, alongside Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Serge Gnabry, Nico Schlotterbeck, and Jonathan Tah.
The second group features Florian Wirtz, Karim Adeyemi, Tom Bischof, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Nick Woltemade, and Jonathan Burkardt, alongside emerging talents such as Said El Mala, Brajan Gruda, and Derry Scherhant.
The first group will contest the matches against the Netherlands and Greece on September 24 and 27, before the second group takes over for the fixtures against Serbia and Greece on October 1 and 4, with Finn Dahmen named in both squads.
Klopp’s strategy stems from the merger of two international windows into a congested schedule of four matches in 11 days. This format provided a rare opportunity to evaluate a wide pool of talent, though each matchday squad will be trimmed to 23 players as the true selection process for the new German national team gets underway.
