Up there in Friesland, they know their way around with scorers. Where the football goals are among the highest in the country, in Heerenveen, where the great Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his goals. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has become a Hunter here, Bas Dost has developed his goal instinct. And Marco van Basten has coached the SC Heerenveen.

In Friesland, nobody is surprised why Joachim Löw has called Schalker Mark Uth to the international match in the Netherlands. At SC Heerenveen, Uth scored 15 goals in a single season four years ago, plus five in the Europa League. Probably the reputation of Mark Uth in the division of honor is better than in Germany.

As the "zero goals scorer" the 27-year-old has been mocked after the nomination by Löw in the previous week was known. Uth has made ten competitive games for Schalke 04 after switching from Hoffenheim. One suspects how many times he has met. But at FC Schalke under defensive specialist Domenico Tedesco scorers are naturally heavier than elsewhere.

"He is due to his achievements from previous years completely cope with the national team," says Löw assistant Marcus Sorg, unimpressed by the numbers.

At times the most successful German striker

In fact, there are statistics that speak for the nomination of Mark Uth. In Hoffenheim Uth has struck 29 times in 78 games, at times he was the best German striker in the league. An Uth in the form of preseason (14 matches in 31 league games) can use the recent weak German offensive well.

The fact that Uth can now make his DFB debut against the Netherlands, of course, has a special touch on his past. A past that has not gone as smoothly as an ambitious professional football player would normally desire. But that led him to his destination at the age of 27.

Uth was once one of the country's most promising young offensive forces. In the U19 he met for 1. FC Köln as he wanted. Success was only another: the then Leverkusen Pierre-Michel Lasogga. Both careers were a bit out of round afterwards. Lasogga has met the ups and downs of a striker's life at Hamburger SV. Uth first at 1. FC Cologne, where he had signed with great ambitions, and then to pursue the descent of his home club from the substitute bank.

Did not get past Finnbogason

So restart in the neighboring country, but also at SC Heerenveen he had to do it first with the already familiar to him Reserve Bank. Van Basten was his coach, a storm legend, no one knows better how to score goals, but as a coach he has shown far less sense. Uth also had the Icelandic Alfred Finnbogason in the nose, today's Augsburg could make in Uths first season at SC what he wanted: He hit the gate. It was a terrific 39 goals this season, against such a number nobody comes, certainly not a young German in the Netherlands, who had little experience so far.

AP

As a scorer in Hoffenheim

It had to make another detour, Uth was loaned to Heracles Almelo, the local coach Jan de Jonge knew him, because he had previously cared for the offspring in Heerenveen. There it suddenly agreed between coach and player, Uth scored his goals. Heerenveen brought him back, then he was suddenly interesting again for the Bundesliga.

"I often had problems at the beginning when I was new somewhere", Uth looked back in his Hoffenheim time in an association-own interview on his career, ultimately he has prevailed most of the time. That should provide some reassurance in Gelsenkirchen, which should dampen the expectation for his DFB premiere, however, also somewhat.

Uth is late starter. "Today, many 17- and 18-year-olds are already regulars in the Bundesliga, but at the age of 17, I played on clay courts," he says. This is not necessarily beneficial in a business that is increasingly focusing on younger players and where success is the most important thing to do right away.

But it can also have advantages to take your time: So Uth in advanced professional age is probably the 100th debutant of the Löw era. Thus, his place in the statistics is safe even if it should initially be nothing with the regular place in the squad. It might be worth while to be patient with him. Mark Uth has proven that he has time.