Young Man City winger Leroy Sane will not be seen in action at the upcoming World Cup in Russia after Germany coach Joachim Low decided to leave the 22 year old out of his final squad. Sane, the newly crowned PFA Young Player of the Year, missed the cut along with the Leverkusen duo of Bernd Leno and Jonathan Tah and Freiburg striker Nils Petersen as Low trimmed his squad to 23.
Low explained that Julian Brandt had got the nod ahead of Sane and it had been a tough decision for him to not include the former Schalke youth product. Sane’s exclusion now means that there are only three Premier League based players in Die Mannschaft’s final squad- Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger, Sane’s Man City team-mate Ilkay Gundogan and Arsenal medio Mesut Ozil.
Sane has been capped 12 times by Germany but is yet to score an international goal. He played a pivotal role in Man City’s record breaking league win in 2017/18 but has struggled to replicate that form at national level with less than stellar performances in the friendlies against Spain, Brazil and Austria probably sealing his fate. There have also been rumours about his attitude, with speculations rife that he was one of the players being alluded to by Toni Kroos when the Real Madrid star pointed to a lack of effort after the Brazil loss. Low however insisted that his off field behaviour was not the reason behind his exclusion
Low however did choose to include Manuel Neuer despite the latter’s injury enforced break and also named him as his captain. Eight of the 23 named ply their trade outside the Bundesliga. Nearly a third of the squad comes from German giants and reigning league champions Bayern Munich.
Germany are the reigning World champions, although their form in recent weeks would’ve been worrying for their supporters. They were beaten 2-1 by Austria over the weekend- the latter’s first win over Die Mannschaft in 32 years and have only one more friendly (against Saudi Arabia), to fine tune stuff before the World Cup.
Despite their recent issues, Germany are still strong favourites to defend their crown. A look at this betting guide reveals that Die Mannschaft are second favourites for the trophy behind in form Brazil, with their 5/1 odds ahead of those of Spain (13/2) and France (7/1), at the time of writing.
Germany are in Group F for the World Cup and will start their campaign against Mexico. Sweden and South Korea are the other two teams in their group.
Germany’s WC Squad by Club
A bulk of the squad, as mentioned before, comes from Bayern. However there is amazing diversity- bar Bayern and PSG, no other club supplies more than one player, which means there are SIXTEEN different clubs with representation in a 23 member squad.
Bayern Munich (7)- Neuer, Hummels, Boateng, Kimmich, Sule, Muller, Rudy
PSG (2)- Trapp, Draxler
Chelsea (1)- Rudiger
Barcelona (1)- Ter Stegen
Man City (1)- Gundogan
Juventus (1)- Khedira
Dortmund (1)- Reus
Schalke (1)- Goretzka
Stuttgart (1)- Gomez
Leipzig (1)- Werner
Arsenal (1)- Ozil
Koln (1)- Hector
Hertha (1)- Plattenhardt
Leverkusen (1)- Brandt
Gladbach (1)- Ginter
Real Madrid (1)- Kroos
Germany’s last five results
Austria 2-1 Germany
Germany 0-1 Brazil
Germany 1-1 Spain
Germany 2-2 France
England 0-0 Germany