By Juan Arango
The face of German football has changed greatly in the past decade. Now the evolution continues as new faces start to emerge, and Die Mannschaft will continue being the force they have always been.
Starting with players like Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Kevin Kuranyi, and Gerald Asamoah to now Mesut Özil and now the next one in line could be Nurnberg midfielder İlkay Gündoğan. In the past couple of months, he has been receiving praise from German and European media. So much so that his current club will most likely have to be resigned with letting ”The New Özil” go spread his wings elsewhere.
His career as well as his personal life seem to have parallels to Özil. Both developed out of Schalke’s youth system. They both pretty much play the same position for their respective clubs. They’ve both scored four goals for their respective teams as of the date that this article is being posted. Only difference in this category is that Özil scored one of his four in the Champions League.
The face of German football has changed greatly in the past decade. Now the evolution continues as new faces start to emerge, and Die Mannschaft will continue being the force they have always been.
Starting with players like Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Kevin Kuranyi, and Gerald Asamoah to now Mesut Özil and now the next one in line could be Nurnberg midfielder İlkay Gündoğan. In the past couple of months, he has been receiving praise from German and European media. So much so that his current club will most likely have to be resigned with letting ”The New Özil” go spread his wings elsewhere.
His career as well as his personal life seem to have parallels to Özil. Both developed out of Schalke’s youth system. They both pretty much play the same position for their respective clubs. They’ve both scored four goals for their respective teams as of the date that this article is being posted. Only difference in this category is that Özil scored one of his four in the Champions League.
Still the most obvious of all of their similarities is that they are both of Turkish descent playing for the German national team.
Their abilities are very similar as they play box-to-box, can come at you from all angles, free up their teammates, and always a threat to score with the ball at their feet.
Gündoğan’s potent left foot has forced goalkeepers to chase vapor trails and defenders second-guessing his every move.
Since his first goal against Bayern Munich, the Nurnberg midfielder has quickly become one of the hottest commodities in the Bundesliga. This is part of the reason why the young man from Gelsenkirchen is no longer in Manchester United’s radar. Instead he is in the Red Devil’s plans for the future.
There is also some interest by Italian side Napoli that emerged, but as of right now it is the Premiership giants that have the fast track to the German U-21 star.
The 20-year-old gem is also an important cog in Nurnberg’s current form. They currently find themselves in sixth place but are just three points out of Champions League positions.
What has made him even more dangerous is his developing partnership with forward Julian Schieber. If you had any doubts, just ask Werder Bremen who saw the two of the three Nurnberg goals. They also scored in last weekend’s 3-1 win against struggling FC Koln.
So if we were talking about how bright the future was for German football after the World Cup, adding a player like breakout sensation İlkay Gündoğan to the list just makes Germany that much more of a formidable force come Brazil 2014.
Still the most obvious of all of their similarities is that they are both of Turkish descent playing for the German national team.
Their abilities are very similar as they play box-to-box, can come at you from all angles, free up their teammates, and always a threat to score with the ball at their feet.
Gündoğan’s potent left foot has forced goalkeepers to chase vapor trails and defenders second-guessing his every move.
Since his first goal against Bayern Munich, the Nurnberg midfielder has quickly become one of the hottest commodities in the Bundesliga. This is part of the reason why the young man from Gelsenkirchen is no longer in Manchester United’s radar. Instead he is in the Red Devil’s plans for the future.
There is also some interest by Italian side Napoli that emerged, but as of right now it is the Premiership giants that have the fast track to the German U-21 star.
The 20-year-old gem is also an important cog in Nurnberg’s current form. They currently find themselves in sixth place but are just three points out of Champions League positions.
What has made him even more dangerous is his developing partnership with forward Julian Schieber. If you had any doubts, just ask Werder Bremen who saw the two of the three Nurnberg goals. They also scored in last weekend’s 3-1 win against struggling FC Koln.
So if we were talking about how bright the future was for German football after the World Cup, adding a player like breakout sensation İlkay Gündoğan to the list just makes Germany that much more of a formidable force come Brazil 2014.
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