Bundesliga
Suat Serdar: "I missed Joachim Löw's call"
Schalke midfielder Suat Serdar has been called up to the senior Germany squad for the first time, filling in for the injured Toni Kroos. But Serdar has revealed how he missed the initial call from Joachim Löw on Sunday morning.
"It's something very special, it's an honour for me to play here," said Serdar as he arrived to join up with the senior German squad for the first time on Monday. "I can’t wait for it."
Serdar has enjoyed a fantastic start to the 2019/20 season alongside his Schalke teammates. His three goals in five appearances from midfield have helped the Royal Blues climb to sixth in the table heading into the international break.
The 22-year-old – who has made eight appearances at U21 level for Germany - will have been planning on staying in Gelsenkirchen to train while some of his teammates flew off to international duty. He was even doing so on Sunday, the day after Schalke's 1-1 draw with Cologne on Matchday 7, after which he saw a missed call on his phone from a special caller.
"I called straight back," Serdar told Kicker on Monday. "Then Jogi answered the call and gave me the good news. That was indescribable. It still hasn’t hit me yet."
Serdar joined up with his Germany teammates on Monday, two days before Löw's side face Argentina in a rematch of the 2014 FIFA World Cup final, at the Signal Iduna Park.
The product of Mainz's academy is one of four players in Löw's squad who could make their international debuts over the next week. Luca Waldschmidt (Freiburg) and Niklas Stark (Hertha Berlin) are on that list, along with Nadiem Amiri (Bayer Leverkusen) who, like Serdar, has been called up for the first time.
Germany face Argentina on Wednesday in Dortmund, before travelling to Tallinn to face Estonia in the country’s capital on Sunday.