Manchester City winger Leroy Sané has been omitted from Germany’s final 23-man World Cup squad, the German federation has confirmed on its Twitter account.
Sané, who won the PFA young player of year award after helping City to the Premier League title, missed out to Julian Brandt of Bayer Leverkusen, while manager Joachim Löw also opted to cut Bernd Leno, Jonathan Tah and Nils Petersen from his squad.
“There are certainly better days in the life of a national coach than when you must send four great players home who would have deserved to be at a World Cup,” Löw said at the team’s training camp in South Tyrol, Italy.
“You have to look at the big picture so we have a variable and well-balanced team prepared for all eventualities,”
Germany
(@DFB_Team_EN)The final 23-man squad for the #WorldCup ??#DieMannschaft #ZSMMN pic.twitter.com/SOJa14wIOD
June 4, 2018
There were places for Sané’s City team-mate Ilkay Gündogan, Arsenal’s Mesut Özil and Chelsea’s Antonio Rüdiger. Germany begin their World Cup finals campaign against Mexico on 17 June and also face Sweden and South Korea in Group F.
Germany squad
Goalkeepers: Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Kevin Trapp (Paris Saint-Germain)
Defenders: Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Jérôme Boateng (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea), Niklas Süle (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Moenchengladbach)
Midfielders: Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Mesut Özil (Arsenal), Julian Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain), Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City), Leon Goretzka (Schalke), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich), Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Mario Gómez (Stuttgart), Timo Werner (Leipzig).