Antonio Di Salvo's disappointment at the departure of one of his regulars is palpable for a moment.

Malik Tillman, the junior international from the U-21 selection of the German Football Association (DFB), has changed associations and now wants to play for the senior national team from his father's homeland.

The attacking midfielder in FC Bayern Munich's second team is no longer part of Di Salvo's team, which is playing against Hungary this Friday (6:15 p.m. on Sat.1) in Osnabrück and only needs one point to qualify for the 2023 European Championship finals in Romania and Georgia to qualify.

"I was surprised"

Instead, he was able to celebrate his debut in the uniform of the American national team, which won an international match against Morocco 3-0 in Cincinnati.

"I was surprised because Malik gave us the impression that he was only concentrating on the German U21s," says Di Salvo of Tillman's departure from the DFB and his return to US Soccer, the American association for which he was a member in 2016 was on the ball in two U15 games.

"We put a lot of trust in him and encouraged him at a time when it wasn't that easy for him," emphasizes Stefan Kuntz's successor as head coach of the German U-21 team, which has been extremely successful for years.

Tillman, who has only played four times in the Bundesliga team of the German champions, has probably made a different decision when looking at possible participation in this year's World Cup in Qatar.

And so Di Salvo wished him "because he's a fine, good boy, all the best on his way", not without emphasizing how "a shame" it was "that he made that decision".

Someone like Di Salvo has to manage the constant coming and going of the players in a temporary team in the best possible way and propagate an open-door personnel policy.

“This cycle,” he says, “we used a lot of players.

They deserve to be watched whether they're around or not.

It is very important to give new players a chance.

I hope that next year there might be a name that I don't even have on my list right now."

Great willingness to learn

The guys, who the Paderborn-born former first and second division player in the service of FC Hansa Rostock, FC Bayern and TSV Munich 1860 currently has around him in Halle near Bielefeld, have the talent to be worthy successors to the German European champions of 2021 and 2017 – each under Kuntz' patronage and Di Salvo's active assistance.

The current squad never fails to please the bald and bearded new head coach.

Also whether his willingness to learn after the only, but hearty 0:4 home defeat against Poland on November 12th of the previous year.

"We learned our lessons from that," says Di Salvo, "in the sense that you have to be highly concentrated in every game and you can't forgive yourself for any mistakes." Grow Group B to five points.

The 42-year-old coach of Italian provenance, who has been working for the DFB since 2013, manages his squad a little more strictly than his predecessor, who also carried the players away with his chummy charm.

At Di Salvo it is the reliability, meticulousness and pedagogical balance that is well received by the young professionals.

Di Salvo sees the fact that not all eleven are the first choice in their clubs as a challenge for his players.

"We are in contact with the clubs," he says, "the lack of playing time doesn't always have something to do with the clubs.

Players must earn their betting times.

It is very important that talented Germans also understand that you have to work hard to earn the opportunity.”

Knauff's "Incredible Season"

Just like Ansgar Knauff, who was loaned out by Borussia Dortmund, did with the Europa League winner Eintracht Frankfurt.

The daredevil on the right with the gift of tricking around his opponents at high speed is, according to Di Salvo, after his “incredible season” one “that you don't have to catch.

He has to take the flow he has now with him.

He can help us to be successful.” Sooner or later, Knauff has what it takes to become a national team player in the country of the four-time world champion.

Di Salvo believes that Tillman would have had this perspective in the “long term”.

But he is in the process of fulfilling his American Dream.

That too is an attractive prospect for a talent with two passes who has mastered the art of the one-two with himself.