By DAN KARELL
After multiple reports and then confirmation that 18-year-old German-American midfielder Julian Green would be joining the U.S. Men’s National Team to train next month, it now turns out the young prospect will not be taking part in his first USMNT camp.
In an interview with U.S. Soccer, Klinsmann confirmed that the Bayern Munich youngster will stay with his club during the international break.
“We are going to give Julian an opportunity to breathe,” Klinsmann told U.S. Soccer. “All of these conversations and attention can be a bit overwhelming for a young player, so we decided to take the foot off the pedal and let him focus on his work at Bayern.
“We had a great conversation. He’s a mature young man and he clearly has a bright future. I told him that when the time is right, the door is wide open.”
When the time will be right is unknown, as Green would still have to file a one-time switch with FIFA in order to play with the USMNT in the future. Earlier in October, Green featured for the Germany U-19 squad in UEFA Under-19 Championship qualifying.
The Tampa, Fla. native continued his hot start to the 2013/2014 season with another two goals last Sunday for Bayern Munich II, the Under-23 team for the reigning European and German champions. He now has 15 goals in 15 games this season.
In addition to his decision on the Green saga, Klinsmann revealed that he’s preparing for the Scotland (Nov. 15) and Austria (Nov. 19) friendly matches as if they’re World Cup tuneup games, considering that there’s only one more official FIFA match before the squad will be announced next May.
Our approach to the games against Scotland and Austria is that they are World Cup preparation matches,” Klinsmann said. “That means we have to look at bringing the best available players. We will be following the situations in Europe and MLS carefully. We plan on taking the strongest squad possible for these games.”
Klinsmann also praised MLS for respecting the international FIFA dates next month, altering their postseason schedule to allow for Klinsmann to potentially select a handful of players based in MLS who would normally have been unavailable due to the playoffs.
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What do you think of this development? Do you agree with Klinsmann’s decision? Do you expect to see Green join the USMNT for training in the future?
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