Stach's rise to the DFB team: "Everything fell out of my face"

When the German national soccer team plays their friendlies against Israel this Saturday (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches and on ZDF) and in the Netherlands next Tuesday (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches and on ARD), there will be they might shed a tear or two at Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth.

After Hoffenheim's David Raum, Hansi Flick's squad now has a second young player who was instrumental in the Franconian promotion to the Bundesliga last season, then changed clubs and left a painful gap: Anton Stach, midfielder, in the service of FSV Mainz 05 for nine months.

Stach's name was

surprise when the national coach announced his squad for the last international matches before the end of the season.

Also for the player himself. He was, as he says, in the car, next to him in the passenger seat was teammate Anderson Lucoqui, who told Stach that he had received a call from an unknown number.

When Stach called back and suddenly national coach Flick was on the line, "everything fell out of my face," as he says.

Out of sheer shock, he made two wrong turns.

The 23-year-old is not one of those talents who recommended themselves for higher tasks via a youth academy, who had already gone through various U-national teams before their first professional contract.

Rather, his career seemed to end before it even began when he failed to assert himself in the youth team at SV Werder Bremen.

At the age of 17, Stach switched to the Northwest Youth Development Club, one season later to VfL Osnabrück.

His CV includes 63 regional league appearances for the nationwide rather unknown SSV Jeddeloh and VfL Wolfsburg II.

Fürther record income thanks to Stach

In the summer of 2020, Fürth signed him, and within a year Stach advanced from a fourth division player to one of the pillars in the second division, he became a U-21 national player, U-21 European champion and took part in the Olympic Games.

This remarkable development of the young man who grew up in Buchholz in the North Heath is now being continued in Mainz.

His move to Rheinhessen gave the Fürthers record transfer income of 3.5 million euros - and the 05ers, after Manuel Friedrich, André Schürrle, Lewis Holtby and Nicolai Müller, the fifth player to make it from Bruchweg to the German senior team.

After just 22 Bundesliga appearances.

"Bo Svensson has plans for me, he told me what he sees in me and what I still have to work on," Anton Stach explained in the summer, explaining why he felt the step to Mainz was the right one for his further development .

Neither he nor those responsible at his new employer had expected it to progress so rapidly.

They see themselves confirmed in their decision to spend a relatively large amount of money on a player who was only able to look back on a year in the second division.

"But three or four months ago he wasn't a seed for us," Svensson recalls that Stach needed patience and perseverance to play his way into the team.

The debut was perfect: In the cup win in Elversberg, he set up Jonathan Burkardt's two goals, which first saved the favorites into extra time and then into a penalty shoot-out, in which he converted the decisive shot himself.

After that, he didn't get beyond short assignments for a long time.

Stach was only allowed to play from the start for the second time at the beginning of December, now as a replacement for the injured Dominik Kohr in the sixth position.

The 23-year-old produced an outstanding performance in the 3-0 win against VfL Wolfsburg, scored the second goal and has not been absent from any of the starting formations since then.

Stach has a mobility and dynamism that you don't necessarily expect from a 1.94 meter tall soccer player, he brings a lot of speed, precise passing and a good goal finish.

Qualities with which he also convinced Flick.

The national coach was at the 0-1 draw against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday last week and invited Stach the following day.

"Of course I'm happy for Anton, I think he has a lot of talent and potential," says Svensson about the appointment: "It happened very quickly and there are still many things he needs to improve on. This applies to defensive work ("But he's on the right track"), decision-making when playing with the ball and heading the ball.

However, there is no doubt about the "overall package", says the Mainz coach and also includes the personality of the player in his judgement: "Anton is modest enough to know that he still has something to learn, but he also knows that he has something got it.

He has a certain carefree attitude, he believes in himself and his qualities, he regulates things and takes matters into his own hands.” Maybe in the national team in the future.