EPPAN (Italy): In a sign of Germany’s depth of talent, Leroy Sane was left out of the defending champion’s final World Cup squad on Monday.

The 22-year-old winger, who won the Premier League title with Manchester City and was voted young player of the year by the Professional Footballers’ Association, didn’t make the cut when Joachim Loew reduced his squad to 23 players.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer — who hadn’t played a competitive game since September until the friendly loss to Austria on Saturday — was included in the squad for the tournament in Russia.

Neuer had been out with a repeat of the fracture in his left foot but played the full game against Austria, likely forcing Marc-Andre ter Stegen to the bench.

Bernd Leno was the goalkeeper to miss out, while defender Jonathan Tah and forward Nils Petersen were also dropped from the squad. Petersen made his debut against Austria but Loew is keeping faith in forwards Timo Werner and Mario Gomez.

Sane, who joined the English champions in 2016, had been a surprise addition to Germany’s Euro 2016 squad two years ago but this time he was overlooked by Loew, who opted to take the more physical Julian Brandt to Russia instead.

“Leroy has a huge amount of talent and he will be back in again because from September we will re-double our work with him,” Loew said at the team’s training camp in South Tyrol, Italy. “But in his games with the national team he hasn’t quite done the business.

“It was a very tight decision between him and Julian Brandt which went in favour of Brandt. There are better days in the life of a national team coach, when you have to send four amazing players, who deserve to be at the World Cup, home.

“It’s like being at the airport check-in counter en route to Moscow and you are not allowed to board the plane.”

Loew announced his squad at the end of a training camp at the Italian Alps. The Germans play their last warm-up game against Saudi Arabia in Leverkusen on Friday before the start of the tournament on June 14.

“You have to look at the big picture so we have a variable and well-balanced team prepared for all eventualities,” Loew said.

Germany are in Group ‘F’ along with Sweden, Mexico and South Korea.

Squad: Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Paris St Germain); Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Antonio Ruediger (Chelsea), Niklas Suele (Bayern Munich); Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Paris St Germain), Leon Goretzka (Schalke 04), Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal); Forwards: Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig).

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2018