Germany Watch: Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich could captain national team

After just one more Bundesliga match week, there will be a brief pause for the first international break since the World Cup in Qatar. For most of Europe, nations will be embarking upon their Euro 2024 qualifying campaigns, but for Germany, as the host nation for next summer’s tournament, they’ll just have a pair of friendlies against the likes of Peru and Belgium.

Given that both Manuel Neuer and Ilkay Gundogan will not be in Die Mannschaft’s squad for the upcoming pair of friendlies, it is expected that Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich will brandish the captain’s armband at least once for Hansi Flick’s side. Flick had also made it clear recently that Thomas Muller would not be involved in the next two international camps for Germany, so that leaves Kimmich next in line to sport the armband.

“Usually, the player with the most international caps wears the armband,” Flick recently told kicker, as per @iMiaSanMia. For Kimmich, he’s already made a total of 74 appearances across all competitions for the German national team, having scored a total of five goals for them by the age of 28. For Bayern and German football fans, it’s long been expected that Kimmich would eventually become captain of both club and country given his vast level of experience with both teams and all of the leadership qualities he possesses. Not to mention, the timing of this is beneficial given how well he already knows Flick from his time as Bayern manager.

He has already worn the armband before in various matches when a more senior player has been subbed off the pitch, but he has also worn the armband from the start a total of four times for Germany thus far. The most recent occasion was Germany’s 3-3 draw with England in the UEFA Nations League last fall, and prior to that it was the 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Romania back in October of 2021.