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Amin Younes (right) gets going again at Eintracht Frankfurt
Photo:
Jan Huebner / imago images / Jan Huebner
Amin Younes had the national team in mind when he moved back to the Bundesliga six months ago.
"But I didn't expect it to work so quickly," said the Eintracht Frankfurt professional ahead of the three upcoming World Cup qualifiers with the DFB team against Iceland (Thursday, 8.45pm), in Romania (March 28) and against North Macedonia (March 31).
Younes has returned to the national team after three and a half years, and so far he has made five international matches.
Anyone who has followed the work of the outgoing national coach Joachim Löw over the past 15 years knows how unusual this step is.
Younes was very far from the national team.
Now he is coming back because he embodies the type of player that Löw needs for a successful conclusion at the European Championship.
The game of the DFB-Elf suffers from not having enough solutions and finding spaces against low opponents.
Younes can fix that with his skills in one-on-one duels.
They are looking for a lot more players with this quality at the DFB.
Those responsible around Joti Chatzialexiou, sporting director of the national teams, have recognized that German football will have a youth problem in the coming years.
The DFB intends to counter this with the Future Project.
One of the aims of this project is to revolutionize the way children play football.
With other forms of play, smaller teams and small goals, talents should be better promoted.
It's about individuality, about dribbling, it's about giving children more fun in football again.
There should be no long waiting times on the sidelines, the focus on tactics and running work should be reduced.
In short: there should be more street footballers in Germany again.
Footballers like Amin Younes.
Basically, his return to the national team is something like Löw's project present.
"I'm a fan of the football field mentality," says Younes.
"For me, the street or the football field was the basis of my career." There are no rules, no referees, and when 30 children play against each other, you have to assert yourself.
“You can acquire and learn a lot there.
There I learned to assert myself in direct duels. "
Still, Younes doesn't want to be pigeonholed as a dribbler.
There is much more to football, he says.
“It annoys me a little bit that I'm only reduced to dribbling.
My fifth yellow card in Frankfurt shows that I have other qualities.
I work well against the ball. ”That's what he says about the requirements of Eintracht.
It's no different in the DFB jersey.
Younes' career path was neither classic nor straight forward
At the age of 27, Younes does not represent the future of the national team.
He has qualities that not many players in the DFB jersey have.
And yet it is no coincidence that he had to wait since his last international match against Azerbaijan in October 2017 before Löw nominated him again.
Younes' career path was neither classic nor straight forward.
Nevertheless, the connection did not break after winning the Confed Cup, and assistant coach Marcus Sorg was always in contact with Younes.
In Mönchengladbach, the offensive player once rose to become a Bundesliga player.
Younes did not make it to the regular player and moved to the second division for 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
It didn't want to work there with the breakthrough and so Younes even had to help out in the second team in the regional league.
It was the darkest hour of his career - from which the then U21 national coach Horst Hrubesch helped him out.
Without Hrubesch, his career would have been different, said Younes in a SPIEGEL interview last year.
Although Younes played in the second team of 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Hrubesch nominated him for the U21 European Championship in 2015, he played a good tournament and moved to Ajax Amsterdam.
Two successful years followed with many goal participations, but then Younes stood in his own way.
He refused his substitution against Heerenveen, which caused great damage to his reputation.
Younes moved to Serie A at SSC Napoli, and was again not a regular there for two years.
Only in Frankfurt, where he was loaned for two years in October, did he find his way back to his old strength.
Now, Younes is known to be a thoughtful and smart professional footballer.
He knows that the time in Kaiserslautern and his misstep in Amsterdam are part of his career.
"I think both negative experiences were valuable to me," he said in the SPIEGEL interview.
"And sometimes you learn more about yourself than if everything went smoothly."
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Amin Younes sets an example
Photo:
RONALD WITTEK / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Now it's going smoothly again.
So far, Younes has played 20 competitive games in Frankfurt and scored four goals.
In the past he was often reduced to the position of wing dribbler, but Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter often uses him more centrally than Zehner.
The goal was particularly memorable in the 2-1 home win against FC Bayern - when he held up a commemorative shirt for Fatih Saraçoğlu, who was killed in the extreme right-wing attack in Hanau, while celebrating the goal.
The national coach was in the stadium for this game.
"He's gradually finding his rhythm again," said Loew.
"His technique and orientation on the pitch are great."
Younes wants to recommend himself in the upcoming international matches for the European championship. But it will be difficult, the competition in his position is fierce. In the end, he could compete with Florian Wirtz, 17, or Jamal Musiala, 18, for a place in the EM squad. The youth speaks for the two talents. On the other hand, one should never write off Amin Younes too soon.
