Noahkai Banks is one player that many U.S. men’s national team fans would’ve wanted to see during March’s international window, but that won’t reportedly happen.
Banks will not be called up to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad later this month, German outlet Kicker reported Wednesday. The decision comes down to Banks wanting to keep open the possibility of playing for Germany in the future, according to the report.
Although Banks has not yet earned a call up from Germany, he could currently play for the program’s Under-21 side.
The 19-year-old was born in Hawaii and moved to Germany when he a young kid. After coming up through Augsburg’s academy, Banks made his first-team debut last season and has since become a consistent starter during the 2025-26 campaign.
He’s scored one goal and added one assist in 21 appearances for Augsburg this season, a major jump up from his eight appearances a season ago.
On the international level, Banks has featured for several U.S. youth national teams, including the Under-17’s, U-19’s and U-20’s. Banks played at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2023 and has since only featured in friendlies for the U-19’s and U-20’s.
He did earn his first senior call up under Pochettino last September, but did not feature against South Korea or Japan.
Banks recently opened up about his international future in a Bundesliga interview saying “I’m still deciding, I know that a World Cup is coming up. But I have a long career ahead of me, so I don’t want to make it dependent on a tournament.”
Augsburg sits ninth in the Bundesliga table and next travels to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. The club will also host Stuttgart on March 22 before the international break gets underway.

That basically rules him out for the WC. Poch will not like him turning down a call up (if he would have been called up) to keep his Germany option open. I’m not too familiar with the Germany roster, but they’d have to be relatively weak in the CB position to consider a 19 year old with limited experience for this summer’s tournament.
Poch will be gone after this WC, so we’ll see how the next coach feels about Banks.