By DAN KARELL
U.S. Soccer confirmed on Friday that Bayern Munich U-23 midfielder Julian Green will indeed join the U.S. Men’s National Team next month, though only for training purposes.
News broke on Thursday afternoon in a report from German publication BILD that Green had been called up by USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to the U.S. squad for friendlies on Nov. 15 against Scotland and Nov. 19 against Austria.
However, Klinsmann has clarified that because the 18-year-old Green has played for Germany in an official FIFA competition (UEFA U-19 qualifying), and would have to file a one-time switch to play for the USA, he’s only joining the USMNT to train and for the coaching staff to get to know him better.
“Julian Green is a tremendous talent,” Klinsmann said in a statement. “We have been scouting him for more than two years, and we are thrilled to bring him into our camp and introduce him to the senior team program. We believe we could help him grow into a special player.”
Though he represented the U.S. with the Under-18 team at a camp in September 2012 in the Netherlands, the Tampa, Fla. native most recently played for the German U-19s in October, playing in all three of the side’s games as a second half substitute and recording two assists as Germany advanced to the Elite qualifying round of UEFA U-19 Championship qualifying.
Green has started his 2013/2014 season on a positive note, scoring 13 times in his first 14 games with the Bayern Munich U-23 team, effectively the team’s reserve squad. If Green hadn’t agreed to join the USMNT for their November camp, he would likely have joined the Germany U-19s for two friendly matches against France U-19s.
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What do you think of this development? Did you expect him to just come to train? Do you see Green having a positive experience with the squad and coaching staff? Do you see him turning up a chance to represent