European Championship quarter-finals in the light of the young stars

Completely detached: Two 21-year-olds make everyone look old

Anyone who can make a fond name for themselves in one match that is now known throughout Germany has come a long way. The 5-1 opening victory against Scotland was the birth of “Wusiala”since then there is Florian Wirtz and Jamal Mhe refuses only in a dynamic double pack.

The two 21-year-olds are not only the youthful face of this German national team, “Wusiala” also embody the title dreams in the European Championship host country. “The two are difference players”enthuses goalgetter Niclas Füllkrug, who is himself a difference maker, ahead of the quarter-final against Spain.

A team leader who has such exceptional talents as Wirtz and Musiala in its ranks can count itself lucky. The two young stars have taken the German European Championship fan anthem “Major Tom” to heart and have so far performed “completely detached”.

Florian Wirtz has been the youngest German goalscorer in European Championship history since his goal in the opening match against Scotland, while Jamal Musiala leads the list of goalscorers with three goals after his 2-0 win in the round of 16 against Denmark. “We need the two magicians up front,” says German national coach Julian Nagelsmann.

Die magical moments often look so playful in “Wusiala”: When they pick up speed and casually shake off their opponents as if they were flies on their jerseys; when they play passes that you wouldn’t have expected; when they mislead several defenders at the same time with simple body feints; and when the ball always lands where it’s supposed to.

In the 5-1 win against Scotland, Musiala didn’t make a single bad pass. “I know what the ball likes,” the Bayern star told Spiegel this week, explaining that 60 percent of his actions were strategy, and for the rest he relies on his intuition.

Florian Wirtz thinks in a similar way. “We both have the same football idea“, says the director of champions Leverkusen. In previous German national teams, the playmakers sometimes got in each other’s way and were unable and unwilling to develop together. Wirtz and Musiala play according to the motto: birds of a feather flock together.

“They both have a very good mentality and are not at all presumptuous,” explains national coach Julian Nagelsmann. And given his expertise, his opponents must be scared and worried. “They both have a lot more up their sleeves.”

Rock, paper, scissors: The new Tikitaka of the Tiktok generation

The joy of playing Lamine Yamal (16) and Nico Williams (21) revealed himself in a viral video after the victory against Georgia in the European Championship round of 16: a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to drink from the bottle first. Williams won against Yamal.

The two young stars form the congenial wing forceps of the Spanish European Championship team, which has thrilled football fans since the beginning of the EURO – right-footed Williams on the left wing and left-footed Yamal on the right wing. “When they win the ball, they immediately try to play forward,” says Leroy Sane about his quarter-final opponents. “Now they have an additional weapon with their lightning-fast wingers.” The fact that the two not only have Technology and your `s Dribblingsbut especially with Game understanding bribe, makes her the trump card of the Furia Roja.

Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana grew up as the son of a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother in simple conditions in Mataróa suburb of Barcelona. He lets fans know this time and again when he celebrates a goal and shows the number 304 with his fingers, the last digit of the postcode of his district of Rocafonda in Mataró.

At six he was awarded for “The Farmhouse“ chosen the FC Barcelona Youth Academywhere he rose through the ranks at lightning speed. At 14, Trainer Xavi to the training of the professionals, at 15 he played for the first time in the Spanish League. And at 16 years and 338 days he ran in Berlin as youngest participant in European Championship history Lamine Yamal is so young that it was even briefly questionable whether he would even be legally allowed to play in the European Championship evening games, because according to the Youth Employment Protection Act, 16-year-olds are not allowed to work after 8 p.m.

His colleague Nico Williams, at 21, no longer has this problem. He owes the fact that he can be here and play for Spain to his parents, who from Ghana through the Sahara to the Spanish enclave of Melilla and applied for asylum there. When they arrived in the Spanish Basque Country, a certain Father Iñaki took care of the family, after whom the parents named their first son, who was born a few months later. Nine years later, Nico was born in Pamplona. The father worked in England and the older Iñaki became not only a footballer, but also a father figure for his little brother.

If Iñaki Williams with 18 to Athletic after Bilbao to become a professional, he rented an apartment for his family with his first salary and brought everyone to Bilbao. Nico also started playing for Athletic – his talent was quickly recognized. While his brother Iñaki plays for Ghana, Nico was promoted to the Spanish senior squad at 18. Both are under contract with Athletic. For now. Because if it’s up to Lamine Yamal, his friend will soon move to FC Barcelona: “I would love it if he came to us.” However, Premier League clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal are also interested in him. The release clause is 58 million euros.

The two friends can play rock, paper, scissors for his future.