Leroy Sane has expressed his disappointment at being overlooked for Germany’s 23-man World Cup squad but has promised to “give it my all to bounce back stronger” after the surprise setback.
The 22-year-old, who this season was named PFA Young Player of the Year, scored 10 goals and provided 15 assists for Manchester City as they cruised to the Premier League title as well as the Carabao Cup, but Germany manager Joachim Löw opted for Bayer Leverkusen’s Julian Brandt ahead of the City man.
Addressing his omission on social media, Sane said: “Thank you so much everyone for your encouraging messages yesterday and today.
“I’m obviously disappointed I won’t participate in the World Cup but I have to accept this decision and I’ll give it my all to bounce back stronger.
“Nothing but the best to the team in Russia. Go get that title!”
The former Schalke winger missed last year’s Confederations Cup campaign in Russia in order to have an operation on his nose, with the decision believed to have annoyed Löw as he looked to develop the national team’s young players a year out from the World Cup.
Sane’s omission comes as a major shock given that both Marco Reus and Mario Gomez feature, with the former suffering heavily from injuries in recent years after missing both the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 and the latter putting in an underwhelming season with Stuttgart.
Löw explained his decision to leave out Sane, admitting it was a “tight” call between the City forward and Brandt.
“In the end it was tight, both (Sane and Brandt) have great qualities, are fast and dribble,” he said.
“Julian Brandt had some good games at the Confederations Cup and was also very good in training, it was close.
“Leroy has a huge talent and he’ll be there again, and we’ll have to work more with him again from September onwards.
“He did well against Austria; he went backwards, switched quickly.
“We had to decide; the squad must be balanced, we cannot take a player away from a defensive position and say we take an offensive (player).
“If something happens at the back, we need alternatives, so I had to make that hard decision.”
