• PFA young player of the year not included in final 23 • Joachim Löw also leaves out Leno, Tah and Pietersen

The Manchester City winger Leroy Sané has been omitted from Germany’s final 23-man World Cup squad.

Sané, who won the PFA young player of year award after helping City to secure the Premier League title, missed out to Julian Brandt of Bayer Leverkusen while the manager, Joachim Löw, also opted to cut Bernd Leno, Jonathan Tah and Nils Petersen from his squad.

Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) The final 23-man squad for the #WorldCup 🇩🇪#DieMannschaft #ZSMMN pic.twitter.com/SOJa14wIOD

“There are certainly better days in the life of a national coach than when you must send four great players home who would have deserved to be at a World Cup,” Löw said at the team’s training camp in South Tyrol, Italy.

“You have to look at the big picture so we have a variable and well-balanced team prepared for all eventualities. We have good players on the wing in Thomas Müller and Marco Reus. Julian Draxler played a good Confed Cup and made progress there.

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“It was a tight race between Leroy Sané and Julian Brandt. Both have big qualities, both are good in the one-on-one duels. Julian Brandt was at the Confed Cup, had some strong games there, and put in good shifts in the training camp too. Leroy Sané is a huge talent, no doubt, and he will be back with the team in September.”

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Sané has so far won 12 caps for Germany but he has yet to find the back of the net for his national team. He has also only set up one goal. “Maybe he has not fully arrived in the national team games. Maybe that tipped the balance,” Löw said. “He did a good job against Austria, tried to work in defence, went into the transition play. No blame here. And his behaviour off the pitch was good as well.”

There were places for Sané’s City team-mate Ilkay Gündogan, Arsenal’s Mesut Özil and Chelsea’s Antonio Rüdiger, as well as the goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who has been appointed team captain despite his long recovery from injury. Germany begin their World Cup finals campaign against Mexico on 17 June and also face Sweden and South Korea in Group F.

Germany squad

Goalkeepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Kevin Trapp (Paris Saint-Germain).



Defenders Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Jérôme Boateng (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea), Niklas Süle (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Mönchengladbach).



Midfielders Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Mesut Özil (Arsenal), Julian Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain), Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City), Leon Goretzka (Schalke), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich), Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen).



Forwards Mario Gómez (Stuttgart), Timo Werner (Leipzig).