Sane’s exclusion heaps pressure on Loew: Ballack
EPL's Young Player of the Year dropped from Germany's World Cup squad
Former Germany international Michael Ballack believes Die Mannschaft coach Joachim Loew has put himself "under massive pressure" by dropping Manchester City star Leroy Sane from his World Cup squad.
The boss of the reigning World Cup champions made the shock announcement yesterday as he revealed his 23-man squad for Russia 2018.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, meanwhile, was named captain of the squad despite playing in just one official game, a friendly against Austria last Friday, since breaking a bone in his foot last September.
Despite playing just five matches for club and country this season, the Bayern Munich and Germany No. 1 insists he can handle the World Cup strain.
He said: "I've had very good feedback from my teammates. They have said that they can't see that I haven't played so much recently...
"I'm convinced that I can take the strain of a whole tournament."
However, Sane - who along with Bernd Leno, Nils Petersen and Jonathan Tah missed the cut- won't have the chance to experience defending the World Cup.
This despite the Manchester City winger being voted the PFA Young Player of the Year after racking up 14 goals and 19 assists as the Citizens won the League Cup and broke records en route to the English Premier League title.
His exclusion prompted Ballack, who reached both the World Cup and European Championship finals with Germany to tweet: "Low puts himself under massive pressure with this decision! Leroy Sane, the best young player in the Premier League has to stay home."
Sane's City teammate Kyle Walker also reacted to the news via Twitter, posting a photograph of him spitting water alongside the caption: "When you find out Leroy Sane isn't going to the World Cup".
Loew explained his surprise decision, saying: "We have good players on the wing in Thomas Mueller and Marco Reus. Julian Draxler played a good Confed Cup, and made progress there.
"It was a tight race between Leroy Sane and Julian Brandt. Both have big qualities, both are good in the one-on-one duels.
"Brandt was at the Confed Cup, had some strong games there, and put in good shifts in the training camp, too.
"Leroy Sane is a huge talent, no doubt, and he will be back with the team in September.
"Maybe he has not fully arrived in the national team games. Maybe that tipped the balance."
In stark contrast to his statistics in a Manchester City jersey, Sane has yet to reproduce anything resembling that form with Germany.
In his 12 caps for his country, he has failed to find the net and registered a solitary assist.
Perhaps Sane's decision to skip last June's Confederations Cup to undergo nasal surgery also worked against him, with Brandt, in particular, taking his chance to shine in the tournament which Germany won.
Germany play their last World Cup warm-up game against Saudi Arabia in Leverkusen on Saturday morning (Singapore time) before heading to Russia for their Group F opener against Mexico on June 17.
GERMANY'S FINAL SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Manuel Neuer, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp
DEFENDERS: Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Joshua Kimmich, Niklas Suele, Matthias Ginter, Jonas Hector, Marvin Plattenhardt, Antonio Ruediger
MIDFIELDERS: Leon Goretzka, Ilkay Guendogan, Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Sebastian Rudy, Mesut Oezil
FORWARDS: Thomas Mueller, Marco Reus, Mario Gomez, Timo Werner, Julian Brandt, Julian Draxler
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