The German national team will contest their two last internationals before the summer break with as few Munich men as rarely before. Head coach Joachim Löw spared Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller when naming the squad on Tuesday. Only DFB captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jérôme Boateng and Mario Götze are part of the 20-man squad for the friendly match against the US (Cologne, 10 June) and the Euro 2016 qualifier against Gibraltar (Faro, 13 June).
Neuer misses out for medical reasons, reported Löw. “Manu is an inspiring example in terms of commitment. Everyone knows that he is one of the players who always want to be on the pitch,” continued the DFB coach. However, Neuer cannot “train or play without pain at the moment. The long season has left marks. He's picked up a number of knocks which have to be dealt with in the coming weeks. We need Manu in the crucial qualifiers in the autumn. He has to be available and perfectly fit by then, and he will be.”
Müller, who has played 62 fixtures for Bayern and the DFB team since the 2014 World Cup, has earned himself “a breather. I made this decision in the light of the season to come, finishing with the European Championship in France in the summer of 2016,” said Löw.
Pizarro headed to the Copa America
Five more FCB pros are still on duty. fcbayern.de lists the players for the end of season internationals:
Robert Lewandowski
The Bayern striker is in the Polish line-up. The White Eagles have a qualifier against Georgia in Warsaw on 13 June, followed by a friendly against Greece in Gdansk three days later on 16 June.
Mehdi Benatia
The central defender and his Morocco team-mates start qualification for the 2017 African Cup of Nations: the first opponents are Libya in Agadir on 12 June. The other opponents are Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe. The group winners as well as the two best runner-up teams qualify for the 2017 tournament in Gabon.
Claudio Pizarro
The Copa America (11 June to 4 July) is on the Bayern forward's schedule this summer. Pizza and the Peruvians will encounter Mexico in a final warm-up match in Lima on 3 June before they head to Chile for the South American championship. Their opponents will be Brazil, Columbia and Venezuela. The table toppers, the runners-up as well as the two best third-ranked teams of the group stage go through to the quarter-finals.
Juan Bernat
The Spain squad with Juan Bernat have a friendly against Costa Rica (Madrid, 11 June) before a qualifier against Belarus (Barysaw, 14 June).
Gianluca Gaudino, Marco Hingerl
The European championship title defence is the big goal of the Germany U-19s. Coach Marcus Sorg has called up two Bayern players for his squad: youngster Gianluca Gaudini and FCB under-19 captain Marco Hingerl. Both will attend a training camp with the DFB squad in Grassau (1-5 June). The European finals in Greece are on their schedule from 6 to 19 July.
