By Rune Gjerulff@runegjerulff

Effenberg: Max Kruse should be in the national team

Former German international Stefan Effenberg suggests Max Kruse should be called up for the national team.
Max Kruse.
Max Kruse.Photo: © Superbass / CC-by-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
Stefan Effenberg finds it hard to understand why Werder Bremen's Max Kruse hasn't been called up for the German national team this season.

According to Effenberg, the fact that Germany coach Joachim Löw hasn't selected Kruse for his team during this season shows that you aren't necessarily rewarded for your performances even if you do really well over a longer period of time.

"The performance principle in the national team is repeatedly discussed, but not implemented in reality," the former German international wrote in a column for t-online.de and continued:

"An example of that is Max Kruse. He's the captain of Werder Bremen and has scored 11 goals and made 13 assists in 29 games this season. Just like Leroy Sané, he's a guy with rough edges - but that doesn't mean you're a problem player."

"For me, it's inexplicable that the DFB don't finally jump out our their shadow with Max Kruse and comply with the performance principle. I would like Joachim Löw to change his mind and bring back Kruse."

Kruse, 31, has scored four goals in 14 appearances for Germany. The striker hasn't appeared for the national team since he was subbed on to score the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Georgia in October 2015.

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