There was no sign of restraint from Angelo Stiller during the Stuttgart native’s first training session with the national football team. This did not surprise the new captain of the DFB team. Joshua Kimmich had expected nothing different from the 23-year-old Stiller. After all, he knows the current VfB professional from his time at FC Bayern Munich: “You could already tell that he’s someone who has balls.”
What Kimmich means by “balls” is the courage with which Stiller goes about things on the football pitch. As a youth player and then as a junior player with the Bayern amateurs, Stiller was occasionally allowed to train with the Munich pros and even played a few games. And even then, Stiller was always someone “who wants the ball, who wants to play football, who is technically good, who is not afraid,” as Kimmich recalled.
Nagelsmann: “Angelo brings a lot with him”
And now – after the European Championships at home – Stiller is part of the DFB team for the first time. Because the midfielder has earned it after “the very good season in Stuttgart” to show himself among the best in the country and, ideally, to prove himself, as national coach Julian Nagelsmann said in Herzogenaurach: “Angelo brings a lot with him.”
Nagelsmann needs successors for Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gündogan in midfield. And the solution in the medium or long term could be Angelo Stiller. And Aleksandar Pavlovic. He is just 20, only missed the European Championships at home because of a tonsil operation, and has long since established himself in the professional team at FC Bayern. Now both are beacons of hope for the DFB.
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Stiller and Pavlovic – two Munich natives at the DFB
“Both have a similar profile. Both are technically strong, both have good passing skills,” said Kimmich about Stiller and Pavlovic. And both were born in Munich. “It’s always good to have guys like that in the team who are hungry and who enjoy football,” said the 29-year-old Kimmich. Stiller and Pavlovic have a lot in common.
The younger player has the international debut ahead of the older player. Stiller could now follow suit in the Nations League, either on Saturday (8.45 p.m./ZDF) in Düsseldorf against Hungary or afterwards in Amsterdam against the Netherlands. He is fighting for it on the training ground. He said beforehand: “I would definitely be confident of playing a good role in this team.” A Stiller, but one with guts.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240904-930-222350/1
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