Starts: Die Aufstellungen für das Spiel der #FCBAmateure gegen den FC Memmingen. #packmas pic.twitter.com/c68eVDK943— FC Bayern Campus (@fcbayerncampus) September 23, 2017
he's in the German U19 EC Qualifier squad. https://www.dfb.de/u-19-junioren/team-und-trainer/?no_cache=1
well I don't blame him for choosing Germany. 1st he's always played for Germany in all youth levels. Sure there were reports he almost went into a US camp but in the end he stuck with Germany. Besides the German youth recent success might be tempting to try and emulate, Olympics Silver medal (losing in penalties) last year and U21 win this year (if right he's eligible for the next 2 U21). whether he makes the seniors or not fully depends on his development, progress and choices.
I don't blame him either. Its his choice, not mine. But from a US perspective, he's almost certainly irrelevant for around another five years. It is possible that he could provisionally cap-tie himself to Germany, and then immediately switch to the USA, but that rarely happens, unless there's some big promise (a la Green and the World Cup). If Tillman does actually break through at Bayern, the USA could try to entice him with a Senior team spot, while Germany might only give him a U-21 spot for the time being, but he would be aware that the U-21 spot with Germany can quickly become a senior team spot in a year or two, maybe even sooner, so he'll most likely wait it out to see if he becomes good enough for Germany. So the USA's chances at this point pretty much revolve around him being a Bundesliga caliber player, but not a German National Team player. Hard to know for sure where he will fall, but I highly doubt any decision is coming until round about 2022 at the earliest, or maybe there is no decision at all because he's not good enough for either in five years, but US fans hoping this kid switches over at youth level and then makes his way into our NT within a year or two is not happening anymore. He's not gonna be part of our 2019 U-20 process or anything like that.
I don't see Arena giving Tillman who plays in Bayern II a call up. So yeah him at this WC is unlikely. As for breaking in Bayern's first team, I think a loan of sorts is more likely to happen so it might take time before he even breaks in (if at all). But if he does break into Bayern XI even if he was a U21. It would mean his ascension to the seniors of Germany is likely to happen. Given that Bayern is the best club in Germany and constantly play and go far in the CL. I agree unless he changes his mind/convinced, it does seem like he needs to be like the other German-Americans who choose the US because they couldn't make the German team.
Well he didn’t play just yet but yeah. That’s fine, if he was good enough for us it was always going to be a one-time switch.
On the bench: Einwechselspieler der #FCBAmateure in Burghausen: Rössl, Mayer, Tarnat, Crnicki, Tillman, Isherwood. #packmas #FCBayernCampus— FC Bayern Campus (@fcbayerncampus) September 29, 2017
If you look at his end product numbers from the last few years, they aren't very good. And I realize he's almost always been young for the level, but we aren't talking about senior team football. A very good youngster should be able to produce at higher youth levels against a lot of players who won't even be professionals. Is he one of these players who shows a lot of skill but struggles to put the ball in the net or find teammates to score goals?
And there's the provisional cap-tie. The silver lining for the US, I suppose, is he's still not a regular starter for Germany youth teams. Never has been, which is not surprising given the competition.
Tillman seems to be half starter half not starter. If you look at his U16, U17, U18, U19. Half the games he starts half the games he's on the bench. For the U19 in the last call up he started one of the friendlies vs Swiss while he was on the bench vs England. there are still 2 Qualifiers at this stage of the EC. Top 2 teams of each group go to the Elite Round with another 3 games to play in order to qualify for the EC 2018. Who knows he could still end up starting some games. in those 17 minutes he still drew a penalty.
I looked at the Germany youth national team history of Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson, and Julian Green -- those who have a somewhat extensive Germany YNT history before switching to the US. (Not counting John Brooks, Danny Williams, or Timmy Chandler who have just one or a few Germany youth caps.) Green was mostly a sub and rarely a starter. Jones and Johnson were both approximately half-starter half-not-starter (I'd say Jones slightly over and Johnson slightly under), with Jones also getting three sub appearances in senior friendlies. Tillman's probably the highest-rated German-American prospect so far, and he may well be good enough for Germany eventually and never play for the US, and youth national team playing time is far from a perfect predictor (look at Jonas Hector). But it does seem there's a plausible chance he could become a Jones- or Johnson-level player who ends up switching to the US, if he's not regularly starting for Germany YNTs.
you also have to take into consideration that Tillman never played a competitive game for Germany until today. Every other game he played was friendlies. So while other guys have been playing competitive games over the different levels(a lot of them together). That also most likely plays against him as to why he doesn't start for now. Although anything could happen/change. you guys are lucky that Jones never played any senior competitive games. 3 friendlies to check him out but then was deemed not good enough/didn't fit the plans of the coach. So he never played for Germany again. I think any youth player it's hard to judge whether they will make the seniors or not. Especially since most NT you have to go through the different levels before making the jump. The youth eligible players that play for the senior NT aren't frequent as they usually require 1st division experience as a starter/regular as well as impressing in 1st division. as long as Bayern has Tillman stuck in 4th division, who knows how he will do in the long run. Although it's possible that with Ribery out for over 3 months that Tillman could get call ups.
I'm happy for Tillman, and hope he makes it for Germany. US needs to cultivate its own talent through its own system if it aspires to join the elite football nations.
i'll say this, anyone who follows me over @usaprospects or at OWTY knows I'm bullish that Tillman will ultimately end up playing for the USA, that said I have to think he's already behind guys like Pulisic (obviously) and Taitague in terms of projected futures with the NT. Those two in particular compete directly with where Tillman will be best deployed moving forward imo.
Not mutually exclusive. US will improve its domestic development while still integrating any and all Americans that will strengthen its teams. Never stopped France, Argentina, Italy, and Germany to integrate 'foreigners' into already strong sides.
Italy has pursued and fielded several foreign born/raised dual nationals at the senior and youth levels -- Mauro Camoranesi, Gabriel Paletta, Franco Vazquez, Pablo Osvaldo, Ezequiel Scheletto (Argentina), Thiago Motta, Eder, Jorginho, Romulo (Brazil), Roberto Soriano, Nicola Sansone (Spain) come to mind. Giuseppe Rossi is another one although he spent quite a bit of time in Italy. Germany has called up Paulo Rink, Kevin Kuranyi, Cacau (Brazil), and Sean Dundee (South Africa) who are all foreign born and raised. Spain has fielded Diego Costa and Marcos Senna (Brazil) in major tournaments. Argentina called Juan Iturbe (born in Argentina, raised in Paraguay) up to their youth sides after he had already appeared for Paraguay's senior national team. France tried to get Gonzalo Higuain (born in France) to play for them and had David Trezeguet (Argentina) in the past.
Better job than I would have done. Germany: Oliver Neuville and Lucas Polalski were foreign born Italy: Christian Viera was Italian born but raised in Australia France: Many members of their 1998 WC Champion Team were foreign born: Thuram, Desailly, Viera, Karembeu
Miroslav Klose, Subotic, Pepe, Raphaël Guerreiro... we could go all day. Not sure where this idea comes from that we are the only country trying to invent the practice of bringing in dual nationals. It’s been happening forever
And, I don't know where the idea that we use it as a crutch to not improve domestic development. We are growing in our domestic development infrastructure and money is moving into it. I would like some concepts and ideas change in US development but that doesn't mean we're sitting back with a cigar in our mouth and feet up saying 'I'm good here, we'll just use the German born players'
Germany is probably one of the best nations in the World at giving a TON of their players a chance at playing for their national team. We got lucky with players like John Brooks and Fabian by getting them to commit to us when they did, because at some point they probably would have been given an opp to play for the national team. Even if it was just one camp. Tillman is probably gone for us if he is playing in the Bundesliga by 19.