Mitchell Pfizer, right-back for Werder Bremen, the competitor in the German Football League, renewed today, Thursday, his desire to represent the first Algerian national team, although he had previously worn the German national team shirt in the lower age groups.
The German Kicker magazine said on Tuesday that Pfizer has the right to represent Algeria on the part of his mother, who is of Algerian origin.
Pfizer participated in 40 matches with the German youth and youth teams, and won the European Championship title with the U-21 team in 2017.
And the official account of Werder Bremen on Twitter quoted Pfizer as saying during a press conference today, “This option was on my mind. Playing in a big tournament is an important goal for me. I think that with my participation with Algeria, I will have abundant chances to achieve this.”
🗣️ Mitchell Weiser on his ambitions to play for 🇩🇿: "I have always had the option in my mind. It's an important goal of mine to play in a big tournament and with Algeria I think I have a better chance of achieving that. #werder pic.twitter.com/9lHAFtxzr8
— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) March 9, 2023
The vision is not yet clear regarding the attendance of the 28-year-old player to the next camp for the Algerian national team, as he does not have an Algerian passport yet, and he is required to change his sports nationality as well.
🗣️ Mitchell Weiser on the upcoming match against his former club @bayer04_en: "I look forward to seeing the boys again, but beyond that we want to win the game and I'm confident that we can do so."#werder #SVWB04 pic .twitter.com/ZQzAaFYwT0
— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) March 9, 2023
Algeria is preparing to face Niger back and forth this month in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Coach Djamel Belmadi promised to restructure the team to compete for the Nations Cup, which will be hosted by Ivory Coast, and to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Belmadi led the Algerian national team to the African Cup of Nations title in 2019, but he bid farewell to the competitions in the first round in Cameroon early last year.
The team also failed to reach the World Cup finals after losing its superiority 1-0 in Cameroon and losing 2-1 in Algeria.
Kicker magazine said in its report the day before yesterday that the Algerian Federation had already contacted Pfizer, but the matter depends on the plans of coach Belmadi and the speed of the procedures for obtaining official citizenship.
The player gave a great performance at the beginning of the current season, making 7 goals in the first 14 games before stopping to hold the World Cup in Qatar.
But that was not enough, so coach Hans Flick decided not to include him in the German national team, which left the tournament in the first round, and he was suffering from defensive problems, especially on the right side, as 4 different players played in this position in 3 matches.