“Craziest six months of my life”

David Odogu recently achieved something only one Wolfsburg player had ever previously done: winning the U17 European Championship with Germany in what was the country’s first triumph at the tournament since 2009. Back then, players like Mario Götze, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Wolfsburg’s Kevin Scheidhauer were in Germany’s squad.

“It’s cool to see that a while ago such global stars were in the same position that I’m in now,” said the 17-year-old. “But I know that I’m only at the start of my journey and that there’s still a lot of hard work to do. I had 200-300 messages on my mobile phone.” The party continued afterwards at the DFB’s official banquet, where the player’s family, who had travelled to Budapest especially for the final, were also present.

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The 1.90-metre defender was not a first-team regular for Germany, but did make one start and another brief appearance. “It’s been a big adjustment,” Odogu said. “First, you have to get used to not being the centre of attention. But the team objective was so big and important that everyone put their ego in the background.”