When Borussia Dortmund face Celtic Glasgow, they will also have to watch out for Nicolas Kühn (24). The German attacking midfielder wants to make the national team – even though he is hardly known in this country.
His name crops up between Kai Havertz, Karim Adeyemi and Florian Wirtz: Nicolas Kühn. On the list of winners of the Fritz Walter Medal in Gold, the 24-year-old Celtic attacker joins some current national team players. And if it’s up to him, it won’t stop at that list for the 2019 U-19 winner. He wants to be on the DFB squad list.
Yet Kühn is not known to everyone in Germany. He has only played professionally in this country for the second team of FC Bayern in the 3rd division and for Erzgebirge Aue in the 2nd Bundesliga – and that was over two years ago. Fighting relegation in the Erzgebirge instead of playing in the Champions League in Dortmund. “I already had my goals clearly defined back then,” “Namely, that I wanted to play in the Champions League and then also in the national team.”
Kühn has now achieved his first goal. He made his Champions League debut for Celtic two weeks ago in the 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava, contributing an assist. In total, Kühn has already notched up 13 points in nine competitive games this season. But it wasn’t in a competitive game that he caused the biggest sensation. The winger scored two goals and set up another in a 4-3 friendly win over Manchester City at the end of July. Coach Brendan Rodgers subsequently praised the assist as “magical”.
Kühn’s career, which began as a sorcerer’s apprentice in the youth teams of Hannover 96, then RB Leipzig and then Ajax Amsterdam, could reach the next level of maturity in Scotland. Since joining Glasgow from Rapid Vienna in January, Kühn has taken a step forward. “It’s great fun with players of this quality,” says Kühn, who usually forms a three-man forward line with the two Japanese players Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi in Rodgers’ team. Being a regular starter means a lot to Kühn. “I just always wanted to play football.” That’s why he chose Aue and Rapid over a move to a bigger club. “It was never about the money or the fame for me.”
Being a regular means a lot to Kühn. “I just always wanted to play football,” which is why he chose Aue or Rapid over a move to a bigger club. “It was never about money or fame for me. I consciously passed up a lot, maybe also to get away from these big names.”
But that’s not the only curtain that has yet to rise for him. On Tuesday evening, that will change to a certain extent: 80,000 in Dortmund, a floodlit game, the Champions League anthem. This is where Kühn can draw attention to himself. So that Schlotterbeck, Groß and Brandt don’t just remain opponents.
