Confed Cup winner Demirbay: 'I would never play for Germany again'
Former international Kerem Demirbay says he regrets choosing the DFB. In a YouTube interview he makes serious accusations – no response from the federation is known.
Archive image · Photo: Voltmetro / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
Kerem Demirbay, who won two caps under Joachim Löw in 2017 and lifted the Confederations Cup with Germany, has turned his back on the national team. "I would never play for Germany again," the 33-year-old said, according to t-online, in an interview with Turkish YouTuber Yağız Sabuncuoğlu. "I don't care about the national team."
Demirbay, who was born in Herten and has played for Istanbul club Kasımpaşa since January, gave his view of how his DFB career ended: after scoring against Cameroon at the Confederations Cup he took off his shirt, revealing a tattoo of the outline of Turkey. After that, he said, he was no longer called up. "I was seen as the foreigner," he said, speaking of racism.
The accusations are his personal account; t-online cites no statement from the DFB. Demirbay also said he had spent around a year and a half trying in vain to become eligible to play for Turkey.