Jürgen Klopp’s expansive 44-man audition leaves the Werkself completely overlooked as a new era of German football begins to take shape.
Jürgen Klopp's first Germany squad contains 44 players, but there is no place for a current Bayer Leverkusen player as the new coach begins a broad search for the next generation of internationals.
Jürgen Klopp has opened the door to almost everyone.
Forty-four players have been selected for Germany's four upcoming Nations League matches, divided into two groups as the new head coach looks to assess a wide pool of talent. There are established names, returning internationals and 16 players who have yet to make their senior debuts.
But one notable Bundesliga club is missing.
Bayer Leverkusen have no current player in Klopp's first Germany squad.
The omission is understandable given that many of Leverkusen's leading players are foreign internationals, but the club has still played an important role in Germany's recent setup, most notably through players such as Jonathan Tah and Florian Wirtz. And there is more talent coming through, with Die Werkself youngster Kennet Eichhorn viewed by Klopp as a potential future face of the German team. Still, the absence of a current Werkself player underlines how much ground the club may have to make up before it returns to the new coach's immediate plans.
That leaves Leverkusen watching this particular Germany cycle from the outside.
Klopp's decision is less a rejection of the club than a reflection of how quickly the landscape has changed. His first selection has been deliberately expansive, with the coach explaining that he wanted to focus on what German football possesses rather than what it lacks.
"We want to help prepare these players to be competing at the very top over the next two or three years"
The structure of the squad reinforces that idea.
Germany will first face the Netherlands in Amsterdam on September 24 and Greece in Augsburg three days later. A second group will then take over for matches against Serbia in Munich on October 1 and Greece in Thessaloniki on October 4.
Klopp has effectively created a much wider audition.
Sixteen uncapped players have been given an opportunity, while several established internationals have been brought back into the picture. The coach has also made clear that he wants to use the period to get to know as many players as possible.
For Leverkusen, the challenge now is different.
The club's current German players will have to force their way into the conversation through their performances at club level, and Klopp has made one thing clear: the door is not closed.
His squad selection is designed to discover who can become important to Germany over the next two or three years. For Die Werkself players, that means the next call-up could depend less on reputation and more on what happens on the pitch in the months ahead.
For now, though, Germany's new era begins without a current Leverkusen representative.
