Karim Adeyemi Omitted from Klopp's Germany Squad
Karim Adeyemi has been left out. And in Jürgen Klopp’s new Germany, that means something.
The 24-year-old forward, revitalised at FC Barcelona and armed with the kind of raw pace coaches dream about, is not in the 24-man DFB squad for the upcoming games against Serbia and the Netherlands. For a player in form at the Spanish champions, the omission lands like a jolt – and it has opened up a fierce debate around what, and who, Klopp really wants in his first Germany rebuild.
A warning from Klopp?
Adeyemi featured in both of Klopp’s opening matches in charge of the national team, logging 80 minutes in one outing against the Netherlands and 15 in the other. He showed flashes, the same explosive acceleration and direct running that has started to light up Barcelona. But he also left chances – and, crucially, defensive responsibilities – on the pitch.
Roman Weidenfeller, who knows Klopp as well as anyone from their Borussia Dortmund days, did not dance around the issue on Sky’s “Triple – Der Hagedorn-Fußballtalk”.
“He started very well against the Netherlands,” Weidenfeller said, before pointing straight at the moment that still stings. Adeyemi blasted a huge chance over the bar, a chance Weidenfeller underlined would have been the winning goal for Germany in Holland.
That miss is the image. The deeper problem, in his eyes, lay off the ball.
Weidenfeller highlighted Adeyemi’s work without possession as the key reason behind Klopp’s decision. Time and again, he said, the forward reacted too slowly, failed to track back, and left gaps that a Klopp team simply cannot afford. The former goalkeeper framed it as a non‑negotiable: Klopp will give his forwards freedom going forward, but he demands the same commitment when the ball is lost.
“I think those are the little things that end up bothering Jürgen,” Weidenfeller argued. Maybe, he suggested, the omission is “a little warning”.
For a player trying to secure a permanent place in the national setup, it is a sharp message.
From Dortmund doubts to Barça resurgence
Adeyemi’s Germany career has never quite caught fire. Since his debut in autumn 2021, he has collected 13 caps but has not managed to nail down a regular starting role. The inconsistency that marked his time at Borussia Dortmund has followed him into the national team picture.
That inconsistency helped push him out of Dortmund in the summer. Barcelona arrived with €22 million and a clear plan, and Adeyemi swapped the Bundesliga for La Liga, landing under a familiar face: Hansi Flick, the coach who once handed him his Germany debut.
The move was not universally welcomed.
“There were critical voices,” Dietmar Hamann reminded viewers, recalling how some questioned Flick’s decision to bring Adeyemi to Barcelona at all. Why take on a player who had blown hot and cold in Dortmund?
The early answer has come on the pitch. Adeyemi has seven goal contributions this season – four goals and three assists – in 14 competitive games for Barça. Hamann praised not only the numbers but the attitude: important goals, eye-catching finishes, and a willingness to put the team first at a club where the standards are unforgiving.
At Dortmund, Adeyemi’s game came in waves: brilliant one week, anonymous the next. For Hamann, the recent version looks different. “Recently, he has been relatively consistent,” the former midfielder noted. In a squad search for incision and speed, that should have been enough.
Hamann’s surprise and Germany’s need for pace
So when Klopp’s latest squad list dropped without Adeyemi’s name, Hamann did not hide his reaction.
“I was surprised that Jürgen Klopp didn’t take him,” he admitted. In modern football, Hamann pointed out, pace is an “incredible weapon”. Look at the squad, he argued, and there are not many players who can match Adeyemi’s speed.
Yet Klopp has drawn his attacking midfield and forward options from elsewhere. Said El Mala (1. FC Köln), Derry Scherhandt (SC Freiburg), Florian Wirtz (Liverpool), Lennart Karl (Bayern Munich), Brajan Gruda (RB Leipzig) and debutant Wael Mohya (Borussia Mönchengladbach) will carry the creative and attacking burden in the upcoming fixtures.
It is a clear signal: form alone is not enough. Klopp is building a structure, and only those who fit every layer – with and without the ball – will be part of it.
Nations League pressure and a narrow margin for error
All of this plays out against a tight Nations League backdrop. After four matches, Germany sit third in their group on five points. The Netherlands and Greece are already three points ahead. Only the top two go through.
Serbia on 13 November. The Netherlands on 16 November. Two games that will help define Klopp’s opening chapter in charge of the national team and shape the path towards the next major tournament.
Adeyemi will watch them from Barcelona, working under Flick, sharpening the edges of his game, and knowing exactly what the national coach wants from him. Goals and assists are no longer his only argument.
If he wants back into Klopp’s Germany, the sprint that matters most now may be the one he makes in the opposite direction.
