Unlike in the case of Woltemade and Newcastle, at VfB Stuttgart everything Undav touches is currently turning to gold, almost automatically. The 29-year-old is already enjoying the best season of his career and has currently scored 23 goals and provided 13 assists in 38 competitive matches.
Nevertheless, following Nagelsmann’s much-discussed kicker interview in early March, there had been speculation that Undav might, despite everything, not feature in the national team manager’s World Cup plans.
These speculations were further fuelled by an interview with Undav shortly afterwards, in which he said that Nagelsmann did not need to call him at the moment. The national team manager immediately dismissed any rumours of a potentially strained relationship with Undav in the context of the squad selection. He said “everything is in perfect order”.
The relationship would probably only be in even better order if Nagelsmann were to give Undav the well-deserved chance to prove himself further in the national team’s match against Ghana next Tuesday. However, Nagelsmann was unwilling to promise whether the VfB star might even feature in the starting line-up.
“We haven’t decided that yet. We need to see how everyone comes out of the game, whether everyone is fit,” said Nagelsmann evasively.