Youssoufa Moukoko set the next record on his U-21 debut – but still sees plenty of room for improvement in his game.
Almost casually, Youssoufa Moukoko is setting age record after age record, and Borussia Dortmund’s attacker seems to be taking them just as casually.
“I’m happy about that, of course. But I can’t buy anything from a record like that,” Moukoko said on the DFB website the day after the German U-21 national team’s 6-0 victory in the European Championship qualifier in San Marino. Although he is now Germany’s youngest U-21 debutant and scorer at 16 years and 268 days, he sees this as “more of a motivation to keep working hard on myself”.
Moukoko was “happy” with his three scorer points – brace plus assist – on Thursday, but nothing more. “There were some situations that I can solve better.” Above all, he wants to “finish more quickly and play more in line with the team” and, after 19 competitive games for BVB, is of the opinion that “I haven’t really achieved anything yet. My path is just beginning.”
“In the meantime we get on as if we’ve been together forever “
Like coach Stefan Kuntz, who was annoyed by “youth football”, Moukoko was only satisfied with the first half against San Marino. After the break, “unfortunately, we lost our order a bit, we hit too many long balls,” he summed up. “But that was mainly due to the many changes and the fact that we have never played together like that before.”
But off the pitch, the newly formed U21s already seem to have grown together a bit. “By now we get along as if we’ve been together as a team forever,” says Moukoko after just a few days. “Everyone brings a different culture from the club, there are many different influences. This creates a special mixture. “