Leroy Sane
Manchester City forward Leroy Sane is the shock omission from Germany’s 23-man squad for the World Cup, announced by coach Joachim Low at a news conference on Monday.
Sane, the Premier League Young Player of the Year, was expected to make the final squad but was left out. While Low initially did not explain his decision, he later told reporters that Leverkusen forward, Julian Brandt, edged the winger.
“We have good players on the wing in Thomas Muller and Marco Reus. Julian Draxler played a good Confed Cup, and made progress there,” Low said. “It was a tight race between Leroy Sane and Julian Brandt. Both have big qualities, both are good in the one-on-one duels.
“Julian Brandt was at the Confed Cup, had some strong games there, and put in good shifts in the training camp too. Leroy Sane is a huge talent, no doubt, and he will be back with the team in September.”
Sane has so far won 12 caps for Germany, but he has yet to find the back of the net for his national team. He has also only set up one goal. And Low said: “Maybe he has not fully arrived in the national team games. Maybe that tipped the balance.
“He did a good job against Austria, tried to work in defence, went into the transition play. No blame here. And his behaviour off the pitch was good as well.”
Hertha Berlin left-back Marvin Plattenhardt made the cut, despite being one of the candidates to be dropped by Low, but the Germany coach explained: “We had to make a call between the two, because we must have a balanced squad. We could not drop one more defender to have an additional player in attack.”
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is included after making his long-awaited comeback from injury in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Austria, his first game since September having been ruled out for eight months with Bayern Munich due to metatarsal injuries.