Germany is getting ready for its first match at the World Cup. But so are many, many players born in Germany who are playing for other teams at the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
There are a full 25 such players, writes "Kicker" on Friday.
As most would expect, Turkey has players in its squad who were born in Germany. The Turkish community in Germany is very large. There are five such footballers. Croatia also has five players who were born in Germany. This proves the influence that German football has, but also the contribution of players with roots from other countries to German football.
Hakan Çalhanoglu, Can Uzun, Kaan Ayhan, Kenan Yildiz and Salih Ozcan are Turkish players who were born and raised in Germany.
Croatian footballers born in Germany are: Josip Stanisic, Igor Matanovic, Marco Pashalic, Marin Pongracic and Mario Pashalic.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has four players born in German cities: Ermedin Demirović, Đenić Burnić, Kerim Alajbegović, Sead Kolasinac.
Merchas Doski and Youssef Amyn are the German-born Iraqi players. Tunisia also has two players on this list: Elias Saad and Rani Khedira.
Meanwhile, also born in Germany are Ibrahim Maza of Algeria, John Yeboah of Ecuador, Dennis Eckert Ayensa of Iran, Ali Al-Azaizeh of Jordan, Ismail Jakobs of Senegal, Jens Castrop of South Korea and Malik Tillman of the USA.
A significant number of them have played for the German youth teams and then moved on to the national teams of their countries of origin. This does not mean that some of them would not have a future in Germany if they decided to play for the national team of their country of birth. But in all these national teams, it is estimated that the competition is weaker than in the team that represents Germany.
Germany is in Group E, and its first match is against Curacao on Sunday at 19:00 PM.