FRANKFURT: Germany injected a strong dose of youth into their provisional 30-man World Cup squad yesterday, calling up talented Schalke 04 teenagers Leon Goretzka and Max Meyer.
Along with 19-year-old Goretzka and 18-year-old Meyer, who had a spectacular debut season in the Bundesliga, coach Joachim Loew also drafted in Borussia Dortmund’s Erik Durm, little-known Shkodran Mustafi of Sampdoria and Matthias Ginter of Freiburg.
Loew did a similar thing before the 2010 edition in South Africa when he announced Germany’s youngest World Cup squad in 76 years and they went on to finish third in the tournament.
Germany have been drawn in Group G for next month’s World Cup in Brazil along with Ghana, Portugal and United States.
“When picking the squad it was important for us to have the right mix of experience, carefreeness and freshness,” Loew told a news conference. The 21-year-old Durm has been named after producing some superb Champions League performances this season.
Loew, who is preparing to face Poland in a friendly next week, will cut the squad to 25 or 26 for a training camp in Italy on May 21 before submitting his final 23 players for the finals by June 2.
The coach also included Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira, now back in action after tearing cruciate knee ligaments last year, but dropped forward Mario Gomez who missed most of the season at Fiorentina through injury.
Provisional squad: Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hanover 96)
Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Kevin Grosskreutz (Borussia Dortmund), Erik Durm (Borussia Dortmund), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Marcell Jansen (Hamburg SV), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal), Shkodran Mustafi (Sampdoria), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)
Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Schalke 04), Matthias Ginter (Freiburg), Leon Goretzka (Schalke 04), Mario Goetze (Bayern Munich), Andre Hahn (Augsburg), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Max Meyer (Schalke 04), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Lukas Podolski (Arsenal), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Andre Schuerrle (Chelsea), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich)
Forwards: Miroslav Klose (Lazio), Kevin Volland (Hoffenheim) (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; editing by Tony Jimenez and Toby Davis).
Reuters
