Clubs are not contractually obliged to release their players to participate at the Olympic games.
Fifa
After six years of not being selected by the German national team, Union Berlin attacking midfielder Max Kruse will get one last shot to perform in the black, red and gold.
The attacking midfielder was cut by former German national coach Joachim Löw, after it was reported that he had left 75,000 Euros (almost R1 300 000) in the back of a Berlin taxi after a wild night of partying, and then snatched a phone from a female reporter who had asked him about the incident.
Head coach Stefan Kunz has called on the Union maestro for the Tokyo games.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Nadiem Amiri (24) and VfL Wolfsburg’s Maximilian Arnold (27) have also been added as the team’s overaged players.
Kunz, a former Bundesliga and national player, is building up quite a reputation as a national coach, with two European championship titles with the German U21s in 2017 and again earlier this year.
The German U23 team doesn’t have the same reputation as their seniors, who are regarded as favourites for all international tournaments they participate in.
The U23s have failed to qualify for a lot of Olympic tournaments in the past, most notably, they didn’t feature between 1992 Barcelona and London 2012.
Their appearance in Tokyo will be their second in a row, after a solid showing at Rio 2016 where they lost against hosts Brazil in the final and won the silver medal.
They have been drawn into Group D, with fixtures against Brazil (July 22), Saudi Arabia (July 25) and Ivory Coast (July 28).