Völler on Doppelpass: four games in a row “not good” – door open for Füllkrug
DFB sporting director Rudi Völler criticised the long international window with four consecutive matches and did not rule out a Germany return for Niclas Füllkrug.
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Video: YouTube · SPORT1 · youtube.com
Rudi Völler used Sunday’s edition of SPORT1’s “Doppelpass” to criticise the new international calendar, which sets one long autumn window with four matches in a row. “But now the four in a row, that just wasn’t good,” the DFB sporting director said, according to dpa. He said he had also spoken at length by phone with head coach Jürgen Klopp, who shares his view. Unlike Germany, who worked with two squads, many nations can barely rotate, which raises the injury risk. Völler hopes FIFA and UEFA will reconsider, for example with two blocks of three games.
He expects the same problem for the Euro 2028 qualifiers in autumn 2027: “Then you can’t rotate anymore.” Völler praised Klopp’s work despite a Nations League record of one win, two draws and one defeat, and asked fans for patience: “It has to work at the tournament. That’s when the reckoning comes.”
On Niclas Füllkrug, whose stoppage-time header earned Werder Bremen a 2-2 draw in Dortmund on Friday, Völler said: “He can head the ball, that much is a fact. If he scores goals like that – yes, why not?” Klopp would follow his next matches. At the same time he noted that the 33-year-old will be older still by Euro 2028. The video shows the full Doppelpass broadcast of 11 October from the YouTube channel “SPORT1”.