Can he prove himself in the senior side? YES, HE CAN

Every now and then, DFB.de like to get the thoughts of a player from our senior team who is facing an unusual challenge at the weekend. Today it’s the turn of Emre Can, who will play West Ham United in the Premier League before heading off to join up with the senior national side.

He is supposedly the new guy on the block, but he knows his way around better than anyone. Next week’s match against Poland sees the 21-year-old Liverpool player return to his roots. He was born in Frankfurt, and grew up in Frankfurt. Fittingly, he may well get his first senior cap in Frankfurt. On Saturday he will line up for Liverpool again against West Ham United. It’s a special game for Can, because it’s the last one before he joins up with the national side.

"Too good – he had to skip an age group"

The red gravel crunches under his feet, his knees rubbed raw – but Emre keeps going, he runs and fights, he dribbles and he shoots. It’s Saturday and the U15 side of Blau-Gelb Frankfurt has a home match. A usual Saturday for the Can household – Emre busy with football. Football had never played a large role in his family, but Emre broke the mould. He only wanted to play football, until the sun had gone down. It all started in Ginnheim, with Blau-Gelb. The first team plays in Kreisliga A – you can see the exhibition tower from the pitch, and the Nidda flows nearby. Since then, the red gravel has been converted to a 3G pitch.

Emre Can talks happily about his early days, as the memories are still fresh in his head. He played in an attacking midfield role, his friends were his team mates – good times. On the unforgiving red pitches, he is full of passion. "After my first training with Blau-Gelb, the trainer said: 'he is too good, he has to skip an age group'," reported Can. It didn’t take long before he was too good at that level too. So he stepped up. He was twelve and already had an eagle on his chest – that of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Wearing an eagle became a familiar event for him. He played for Eintracht for three years, before he made the move to England and signed a contract with Liverpool FC last summer (via Bayern München and Bayer Leverkusen). He still wears the eagle very often, but instead of a red one, a black one. In June 2009, he played his first game for the German national side, a 3-0 win in Langenselbold against Poland – just four days before he received his German passport.

More than six years separate that first game for the U15s and his probable debut for the senior side. Step by step, the midfielder has been working his way to the top. Now Emre Can is returning to Frankfurt – even if it is just for a couple of days. "He’s an interesting player who has come along well and who can be used in many different positions," said Germany coach Joachim Löw. He can be used just as easily in defence as in midfield – which is always a positive for a young player who is trying to fight his way into the side. He admits that he prefers to play in central midfield – just like in his youth days, but perhaps a little further back.

Freund: "Can is the most complete player I’ve ever seen"

That was his position a couple of months ago, at the U21 European Championship in the Czech Republic. Although he was one of the youngest players, Can was a leader in a German side that secured a place at the Olympic Games for the first time in 28 years. It was also a side, however, that received a true footballing lesson as they were beaten 5-0 in the semi-final against Portugal. Straight after the game, Can was one of the first players to comment on the performance. "Perhaps I thought I was the best or something like that before the game. There’s nothing to explain and we have no excuses. What happened out there was a horror show." Sporting director Hansi Flick had high praise for Can’s reaction to the defeat: “It shows his excellent character, his humility. He’s a leader and a team player, and he’s already shown that in earlier international youth teams." An example of that would be the U17 World Cup in 2011, where Can was Germany’s captain – his coach at that tournament, Steffen Freund, was unequivocal in his praise. "Emre Can is the most complete player I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot," said Freund.

At Liverpool, Can is spoken of as the successor to Steven Gerrard, the club legend who has just moved to the USA. Can is happy about that, but he also knows how fickle football can be and how quickly opinions can be changed – he also knows that he needs to keep performing well over a longer period of time. "Of course it makes me proud," said the midfielder of the comparisons between him and Gerrard. "But I want to go my own way, as Emre Can."

Liverpool, after Leverkusen and Munich, is his third professional club. He likes it there, and he has big plans. Before every home game he walks under a plaque in the tunnel that bears the slogan "This Is Anfield" – a plaque every Liverpool player touches before stepping out onto the pitch. At the end of the tunnel awaits a sea of red and the stadium rocking to the club hymn "You’ll Never Walk Alone". Whoever hears that song knows that they are never truly on their own, as hard as times may get – it’s the perfect soundtrack for a football club, whether sung at Anfield Road in Liverpool or in the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt. Or even on the pitches at Ginnheim.