Thought he had represented Germany, officially, at the youth level and was provisionally cap-tied. Edit: he has been provisionally cap-tied. http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=show&id=7102
Right. He's made decisions on certain call-ups that have made it fairly obvious he's not ready to be a US player yet. And of course he's free to file that one time switch any time he likes and has chosen not to. I have no ill will toward the kid. Good for him taking time with the choice that he has.
That's what confused me, there has been no seminal event for the US needing him for any reason so I never really thought he made any definate decision to not play for the US. Afterall by default he was born in Germany, plays in Germany, and was called up for German youth teams.
He was born in Texas. BTW, I always felt the dual nationals who had the weakest American connection were not those born overseas to an American parent but rather those who were born in the US to non-American parents here on a business trip but who moved away at an early age (Johannsson, Hangeland, Whitebread, Hurzeler).
Ah that's right. Kinda like baby tourists.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapo...-helps-chinese-tourists-have-american-babies/
Isn't he the kid that said in an interview (perhaps with Brian) that he wanted to represent the US because he liked going on vacation there............................? Of all of the German dual-nationals, I always thought Hurzeler's connections to the US were the most tenuous. I mean, basically non-existent. But we can look at it another way, too. I don't see how he's anywhere close to any German youth or national team right now. We're talking about a 20 year old that's never made a first team pro-appearance. There are kids the same age as him, and younger, that have already appeared with the full German national team. He's older than Julian Draxler, for instance. They've got an impressive group of midfielders in their early 20's that aren't going anywhere (Gotze-21, Gundugan-22, Schurrle-22, Herrmann-22, Holtby-22, Kroos-23, Muller-23 and on and on). I mean, seriously...............Hurzerler ain't close at the moment. Perhaps he can break thru at Hoffenheim and force himself into the picture. Never say never I guess. I really don't think this is a kid that's turning down US calls because he's "waiting for Germany." Germany ain't calling. So either the US didn't contact him regarding the U20 World Cup squad, or Hurzeler simply isn't interested. And in this case, I'm fine with that.
well didn't he play in friendlies with the Germany U-20 team this year, or last year? Albeit it's not the U-21 team, but it's false to say he didn't play with any German national team.
If memory serves correctly, he had not been active (YNT wise) due to studying for his Abitur. That was over a year ago, however.
I'd like to see this eventually lead to the opportunity for senior team minutes. Lets talk a bit more about his game. He's more of a creative, attacking central midfielder, right?
Hurzeler is one of 20 players reporting for the opening of training for the Hoffenheim first team today. The link seems to indicate that he is the only one of the group that is not on a professional contract.
Best of luck to him! He might not end up with the first team when the season starts, but it's a long season.
Fabian Huerzeler went the distance as 1899 Hoffenheim II opened the Regionalliga Südwest season today with a 3-0 home loss to 1. FSV Mainz 05 II. The game was played 10 vs. 10 from the 26th minute on (Hoffenheim's keeper was sent off in the 9th minute).
That's how you convert an umlaut. Jürgen would usually be transliterated as Juergen, except *our* Jurgen prefers it that way. I'm sure it was done because umlauts aren't easy to search on.
This, and some of us add the "e" because our keyboard shortcuts don't work. That and we're in 'MURICA so we're going to type in 'murican.
Well that's not how US soccer spells it (even without the umlaut). http://www.ussoccer.com/teams/u-20-mnt/h/fabian-hurzeler.aspx
I owe my knowledge to working for a German company in the '90s when you couldn't just Google, cut and paste an umlaut. Trying to find a German in the email directory was quite challenging if you didn't know this trick.
It's odd that US Soccer has a page for him... did he ever even appear in a friendly? Because he's tied to Germany right now, I wouldn't think so, though I know we planned to have him join the U20 team but "exams" got in the way.