Revived Fuellkrug relishes home comforts on Germany return

Detailed summary

BERLIN: After disappointing spells at West Ham and AC Milan, striker Niclas Fuellkrug’s rich run of form since returning to Werder Bremen has earned him a ...

BERLIN: After disappointing spells at West Ham and AC Milan, striker Niclas Fuellkrug’s rich run of form since returning to Werder Bremen has earned him a Germany recall.

Germany coach Jurgen Klopp has included Fuellkrug in his squad for Nations League matches against Serbia on Friday and the Netherlands next week. The 33-year-old has not played for his country since a Nations League third-place playoff defeat by France in June 2025.

Klopp has said his focus is on youth and building for the future, but Fuellkrug made himself impossible to ignore. He is the Bundesliga’s top scorer, ahead of Harry Kane, with 12 goals in 11 matches in all competitions this season. “Sometimes form trumps everything else,” Klopp said. “He made his case with a wide variety of goals... and almost all of them were spectacular.” Fuellkrug also has a strong international record, with 14 goals in 24 appearances, many as a substitute.

Fuellkrug, who is on a season-long loan from West Ham, now in the Championship, has a simple explanation for his form at Bremen, the club he first joined aged 14. “It’s my footballing home,” he said. “Everyone sleeps better in their own bed. I just feel completely at ease here.”

He scored just three times in an injury-hit 18 months in London, though his blunt honesty won over some West Ham fans. “I couldn’t stay fit,” Fuellkrug said of his struggles abroad. “The key is staying fit and having a team around me that looks for me -- and passes me the ball when the moment is right.”

His recall also highlights a shortage of strikers in a country that once produced forwards such as Gerd Mueller, Rudi Voeller and Jurgen Klinsmann. Germany have not had a top-class number nine since 2014 World Cup winner Miroslav Klose, and Arsenal’s Kai Havertz, who often starts up front, has never been an out-and-out goalscorer.

Fuellkrug said Klose had been his role model as a child. “My age is a fact. But I find what Miro (Klose) had to say interesting,” he said.

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