Getting advice and national team?!
In the summer I trained and trained and trained. I tried as much training as I could do.
The people around me started to worry and my grandpa gave me the best advice he could.
"Maximilian. You know I have had many many football games. Do you know how I achieved this?"
"Through hard work?", I answered in a rather not-so-confident voice.
"No. Through Mentality. All the best players in the world have a strong mentality. Without it and without confidence you will achieve nothing. In the end if you arent confident enough and try to play the solo, you wont be achieving more.", grandpa said.
"But grandpa. I play with so much confidence", I said in a grieving voice as that was one of my trademarks.
"Hahahaha. Yes, you act like you play like that. But are you really playing like that? You are only using a few skills and don't get too risky since joining Bayern II. You need to break free with your worries and play with confidence. Without confidence you will achieve nothing and will only be a middle class player at best. It doesn't matter how talented you are. You are playing like you are the last man, but , arent there still 3 other players behind you if you fail. With Neuer you can say another one. Dont worry and play like you were born on the field and you will die on it.", he said.
I fell in thought and my grandpa slowly walked back.
I drove to the training ground for my daily training.
While going into the turf I suddenly heard a familiar voice, "Hey Meyer(my nickname) I am flying home today. I heard you were called up to the national team".
I was shocked and didn't believe it at first.
I didn't get a call or something like that.
"Where did you hear this James?", I asked in a questioning voice.
"From Müller", he said looking confused.
"Is that not true?", he added.
I ignored him and walked to Müller to ask him about what was going on.
"Thomas, why did you tell James I was called up to the national team?", I asked really confused as Müller wasn't the type of person to tell lies.
"Why did you tell him James?!", Müller suddenly said.
"Why shouldn't I tell him?", James was very confused.
"I told you that it was a surprise", Thomas said almost crying.
"Oh that's what you meant with your gestures", James suddenly realized.
~A short while later~
It turns out that Müller was informed by the national team coach Joachim Löw(Loew) that I will probably join the national team and asked him if he thinks I am ready for it. Müller said yes and told everyone about it. He was the type of person who couldn't hold in a secret. He wanted everyone to ignore me when I was excited.
He told everyone including James about it.
Müller, who couldn't describe a word, which James didn't know tried to describe it with signs. Which went very wrong. James misunderstood it and accidentally told me about it.
We all had a good laugh about it afterwards.
But after the training I began to think. Why did I get called up to the national team?
I had no clue what the reason was. I think my skill level was enough, but I didnt play enough to really prove myself.
After thinking about it the whole night, I couldn't find any reason.
The day after tomorrow I got a call from Löw, who asked me if I wanted to play in Germanys soon friendlies.
I first asked my parents as I wasn't old enough to decide myself and then got officially congratulated afterwards.
Soon after the Bayern bosses also congratulated me. I didnt hold back and asked Rummenigge why I was called up to the National Team as I was very familiar with him.
He said,"It is because of quite a few reasons. First of all. After Lahms departure Germany has no good fullbacks. The second. You are young. It is easy to change your nationality. Another part of the young thing is your popularity. You are very popular right now. The third is Beckenbauer, he pressured Löw to call you up to the national team. That is what I call an advantage. That guy really likes you. And Löw really had no reason not to call you up as it were only friendlies and there were only positive aspects.