Antonio Di Salvo sees the promotion of U21 national players to the senior team as a great opportunity for other European Championship candidates.
“There are a few players at Hansi Flick. This gives other and new players the opportunity to show themselves and present themselves,” said U21 national coach Di Salvo in Frankfurt/Main. There the 43-year-old gave an insight into the plans at the start of the European Championship year alongside sports director Rudi Völler and national coach Hansi Flick.
“We have enough talent and this is a chance for them to jump on the EURO train,” said Di Salvo. The U21s will start the European Championship year on Friday in Frankfurt/Main with a home game against Japan. Four days later, in Sibiu, Romania, co-host of the European Championship, is the next touchstone for the European football champions.
Di Salvo has to do without the previous U21 internationals Kevin Schade, Felix Nmecha, Josha Vagnoman and Malick Thiaw, who were called up for the senior national team for the first time. Armel Bella Kotchap, who was part of the Flick squad at the World Cup in Qatar, is also not in the U21s. Exceptional talents Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz are only suitable for the senior national team anyway.
Asta and Schmidt nominated
Augsburg’s Maximilian Bauer is absent due to injury. Di Salvo nominated Simon Asta (SpVgg Greuther Fürth) and Kenneth Schmidt (SC Freiburg) before the start of the hot phase of the EM warm-up.
Di Salvo welcomes the fact that his team is preparing for their duties at the DFB campus, which is close to the senior national team. “It shows how well we work together that we’ll be training with the senior national team on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we’re looking forward to it,” said Di Salvo.
After the friendlies, the U21s will meet again on June 10th in Prad/South Tyrol to prepare for the final round of the European Championships in a training camp until June 18th. The German team travel to the tournament, which takes place in Georgia and Romania from June 21 to July 8, as the defending champions. Opponents in the preliminary round are Israel, the Czech Republic and England. The team easily qualified for the tournament.
