FRANKFURT, Germany \u2014 To help turn around a troubled qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann is looking to a player who would be eligible to represent the United States.<\/p>\n
Left back Nathaniel \u201cNene\u201d Brown was called up by Germany on Thursday for qualifying games on Oct. 10 against Luxembourg and Oct. 13 against Northern Ireland. Nagelsmann called him \u201ca big talent in defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
They’re crucial for Germany, which is only third in its group after it lost its opening game to Slovakia last month, as it bids to reach the World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Committing to Germany<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old Brown is eligible for both nations, but playing for Germany in a competitive game over the age of 20 would close the door on representing the U.S. in the future.<\/p>\n
Brown was born in Germany to an American father and German mother, and he plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. He was a key part of the Germany Under-21 team which lost the European Championship final to England in June.<\/p>\n
Brown has said previously he was contacted about potentially representing the U.S. but is happy to stay with Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u201d he said in a video released by Frankfurt in July, when asked if he’d thought about playing for the U.S. \u201cThere was contact as well, but I was born in Germany and I’ve played for the under-21s.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
M\u00f6nchengladbach’s Florian Neuhaus, left, and Frankfurt’s Nathaniel Brown in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt at Stadion im Borussia-Park, M\u00f6nchengladbach, Germany, Saturday Sept. 27, 2025. Credit: AP\/Federico Gambarini<\/p>\n
No San\u00e9 and F\u00fcllkrug<\/p>\n
With Real Madrid’s Antonio R\u00fcdiger out injured, Nagelsmann will rely on Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck to hold the defense together. Schlotterbeck returned only this month from a five-month injury layoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we’re still missing some players we’re convinced our team has the quality to do better than it has done recently,\u201d Nagelsmann said. \u201cWith Toni R\u00fcdiger out it’s enormously important to have Nico Schlotterbeck back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newcastle’s Nick Woltemade could be the first-choice striker after Nagelsmann dropped Niclas F\u00fcllkrug, who hasn’t scored for West Ham since April. Forward Leroy San\u00e9 misses out again following his move to Turkish club Galatasaray, while Dortmund midfielder Pascal Gross also misses out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRANKFURT, Germany \u2014 To help turn around a troubled qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup, Germany coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,10031,34242,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-468126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-wires-bot","13":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115303959579061362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}