Kicker addresses absences of Youssoufa Moukoko and Jonathan Burkardt from German national teams | OneFootball

Kicker has weighed in on the exclusion of a pair of German strikers from the recent Germany and Germany U21 national team selections. In two separate editorials published on the German magazine’s website, some context to the stories of Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko and Mainz 05’s Jonathan Burkardt are provided. The former’s absence is explainable while the latter’s is questionable.

German journalist Michael Pfeifer takes on the tragic case of Moukokou. The famed German “Wunderkind” still remains the most successful Germany U21 striker in head coach Antonio di Salvo’s call-up pool. Moukoko has scored 13 goals in a total of 15 international matches for the German U21 team and has the highest goal ratio (0.87 goals per game) of all strikers to have scored double digits for di Salvo.

Moukoko also has two German senior team caps to his name and also made a significant contribution to the German U21’s qualification for the forthcoming UEFA U21 European Championships in Slovakia. The now 20-year-old scored six goals in the opening three qualification fixtures for the tournament in September, October, and November of 2023.

Since netting a goal in the November 2023 4-1 win over the Estonian U21s, however, Moukoko has not scored in a DFB tricot. Moukoko’s disastrous loan spell to OGC Nice this season saw him fade away after bagging a brace in a matchday five Ligue 1 encounter. As his minutes slipped, the Cameroon-born forward’s estimated market value has halved from €20m to €10m.

Pfeifer brings up the matter of Moukoko’s age, not directly referencing some of the reports suggesting that the long-held rumors that the player’s age may be falsified could be true. Pfeifer’s piece holds that Moukoko is in fact 20-years-old and that he still could be eligible to represent the U21s in the 2027 U21 European Championship.

The case of Moukoko’s potentially forged birth certificate nevertheless has been known to affect the player. Moukoko once admitted that the controversy hurt him so much that he considered quitting football. The re-emergence of these reports could be contributing to Moukoko’s current form woes.

In any event, Pfeifer does note that Moukoko has suffered a “bitter fall from grace” and that his career has suffered “a brutal blow“. Di Salvo is quoted in the piece explaining why Moukoko was excluded from his preliminary squad.

“We are all very sad and had hoped that he would come to the European Championship with some momentum,” Di Salvo is quoted as saying, “but he has only played 20 minutes this [calendar 2025] year. He ‘s also aware of that. He knew that he didn’t deserve it and couldn’t expect to be called up.”

Oliver Hartmann touches upon the case of Burkardt. Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann declined to call up the former Germany U21 captain for his latest Nations League squad. This is somewhat surprising given that Tim Kleindienst’s injury called for one of the Bundesliga’s most in-form strikers.

There are, naturally, a myriad of reasons for Burkardt’s exclusion. The 24-year-old didn’t exactly impress under Nagelsmann during the March international break. VfB Stuttgart striker Nick Woltemade’s performance for the U21s in March, on the other hand, merited a promotion to the senior team.

Hartmann still points out that – with 18 league goals this season – Burkardt was the Bundesliga’s top-scoring German striker. Nagelsmann’s decision to take Niclas Füllkrug on following his spotty season is questionable. Moreover, Deniz Undav’s recent form rise doesn’t match Burkardt’s.

Burkardt scored in all three of Mainz’s final league fixtures. Nagelsmann’s decision to nominate Undav’s VfB Stuttgart teammate Angelo Stiller (struggling with injury) and new Bayern Munich signing Tom Bischof (who has skipped the U21 level entirely) also raises questions.

The inclusion of Bischof and Stiller means Nagelsmann called up 12 midfielders/wingers/attacking midfielders while selecting only three natural strikers. Hartmann directly questions whether this was the right call in his article. A quote from Mainz sporting CEO Christian Heidel serves as a centerpiece.

“I’m surprised, especially after Tim Kleindienst’s injury, that the most successful German striker in the Bundesliga season has not been nominated,” Heidel is quoted as saying. “It’s a shame.“

GGFN | Peter Weis