As of: February 8, 2024, 1:32 p.m
By: Melanie Gottschalk
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For a long time, Deniz Undav had very little.
But the striker fought for his dream – until the call from national coach Julian Nagelsmann finally came.
Frankfurt – His name is currently more present than ever: Deniz Undav, the top German goalscorer in the Bundesliga with 14 goals, has played his way into the hearts of VfB fans within just a few months.
This has not gone unnoticed by national coach Julian Nagelsmann, who will nominate the 27-year-old for the DFB team for the first time in March.
As the VfB Stuttgart striker confirmed, Nagelsmann has already spoken to him on the phone and promised him a place in the squad.
VfB striker Deniz Undav talks about his rocky path to the Bundesliga
For Undav, this is a dream come true for which he has worked hard.
Because it wasn't always as easy as everything seems to him now.
The road to becoming a professional footballer was rocky for the likeable striker, who, in his own words, is “almost all about saying things”.
As he himself says, at times he lived on just 100 euros a month.
Now, as a professional footballer, it's a completely different world, but "still I don't lose touch with money," he said in an interview with
Sportbild
.
The times were too hard when, according to his own statements, he often lived “on toast and coleslaw for two weeks.”
“I had 120 euros available to me.
My parents paid my rent and I had to pay the train ticket myself.
I had to cope with 100 euros every month,” said the 27-year-old.
That's why he started training to become a machine operator.
“The training period was almost a luxury,” he admits in the interview.
Deniz Undav has worked for a long time towards his dream of becoming a DFB team.
Now his moment seems to have come.
© Montage: Imago
Undav studied to ease the financial burden on his parents
He didn't want to continue to be a financial burden on his parents, so he did the training.
“So I got 600 euros a month from training and 400 euros from football.
That was 1000 euros, around 400 euros went towards the rent.
I did it like that for two years,” he said.
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Undav had been rejected by Werder Bremen in his youth and had since given up hope of becoming a professional footballer.
The striker moved to Belgium via clubs like TSV Havelse and SV Meppen and was so successful there that the Premier League took notice of him.
He moved from the English first division club Brighton & Hove Albion on loan to VfB Stuttgart this season and is playing in the Bundesliga for the first time.
Undav is proud – perhaps he will soon cause a sensation in the DFB jersey
The fact that he got there straight away makes Undav proud.
“When I think about where I come from, the way other people talk about me is extreme.
It makes me proud, especially for my family.
That other people talk to her and say: 'Hey, your son, crazy!'" And who knows, maybe Undav will even go hunting for goals with the DFB team at the 2024 European Championship in Germany in the summer.
(msb/dpa)