Jürgen Klopp promised a reset. Not a gentle transition, not a tweak, but a clean break with the drift and disappointment that has defined Germany’s recent tournament history. Nobody’s place was safe, he said. Only performance, form and work rate would matter.
A few weeks later, that promise has a face: Felix Keidel.
From Ingolstadt’s academy to Klopp’s radar
Keidel is not the kind of name you expect to see on a Germany squad list. Not yet, anyway. He is 23, plays for SV Elversberg, and has only three Bundesliga appearances to his name. On paper, that is the profile of a prospect, not an international.
Yet late on Tuesday, Bild reported that Klopp had invited the defender to his first Germany camp. On Wednesday, kicker backed it up with its own information. The surprise was complete. Out of the 57 players Klopp admitted were on his initial shortlist, Keidel is among the most unlikely.
His path has been anything but glamorous. At FC Ingolstadt, where he joined the U19s in 2012, he climbed quietly and steadily through every youth level. No hype, no headlines. By the summer of 2022, he had earned his place in the professional squad.
Once there, he didn’t wait around.
At 20, he established himself as a regular in the 3. Liga side, racking up 37 appearances in his first full season. One goal, four assists – solid numbers for a young defender – but the real story lay in his reliability. Week after week, he played, learned, and adapted.
The leap with Elversberg
The real step came in 2025. Elversberg, still smarting after narrowly missing out on promotion against 1. FC Heidenheim, went looking for fresh energy and found it in Ingolstadt. For a modest €400,000, they bought Keidel out of his contract.
Again, he settled instantly.
Under coach Vincent Wagner, Keidel became a fixture. Across the season he made 25 appearances, starting 13 times, and helped drive a club from Saarland that many had written off into one of the stories of the year. By the end of the campaign, Elversberg were celebrating a sensational promotion to the Bundesliga.
From Germany’s third tier to the top flight in just over two years. No shortcuts, no big-name move, just a steady climb.
The Bundesliga, so far, has seen only flashes. Three league games: against Leverkusen, Gladbach and, most recently, Bayern. One goal in those matches, plus a DFB Cup outing against MSV Duisburg that brought two assists. A tiny sample, but apparently enough to convince Klopp that this is a player worth a closer look.
A fixer for Germany’s problem position?
The question now is not whether Keidel deserves a chance. Klopp has answered that already. The question is what, exactly, he might become for the national team.
Germany’s right-back situation has been a headache ever since Philipp Lahm retired and Joshua Kimmich moved permanently into midfield. Hansi Flick and Julian Nagelsmann both searched for solutions. None stuck.
Benjamin Henrichs and Ridle Baku came and went. Josha Vagnoman had his auditions. Even Kimmich was pushed back to the flank at the 2026 World Cup in a bid to restore balance. Each idea flickered briefly, then faded.
Keidel offers something different: extreme versatility backed by a grounding in several positions.
At Ingolstadt, coach Sabrina Wittmann used him almost everywhere. Both full-back roles. His natural spot at right-back in a back four. Central midfield. Even as an attacking midfielder, operating in the half-spaces and drifting wide to link play. For a young player, that sort of tactical education is gold.
Elversberg initially pulled him a little deeper. In the promotion season he played mainly at right-back, tightening his defensive game while still offering width and energy. This season, Wagner has increasingly used him in defensive midfield alongside Lukasz Poreba, trusting his reading of the game and his work rate in the centre of the pitch.
For Klopp, though, the picture is clear. Germany need a right-back. A real one. Someone who can own the flank in a back four over the long term, not just patch the gap for a few games.
Keidel’s profile fits that need: defensively schooled, tactically flexible, comfortable both in tight spaces and on the overlap, and hardened by the grind of lower-league football. He has not been fast-tracked through elite academies and Champions League nights. He has fought his way up from the 3. Liga.
Is he already at the level to shape games for Germany from day one? That remains an open question. International football is an unforgiving environment, and Klopp will know that throwing in a newcomer too early can do more harm than good.
But this call-up is not about a finished product. It is about potential, attitude and a profile that fits a glaring need.
German football has spent years searching for a long-term answer at right-back. Perhaps, after all the false starts and short-term fixes, the solution will come from an unexpected place – from a defender who climbed quietly from Ingolstadt’s youth teams to Elversberg’s promotion heroes, and now walks into a Germany camp with everything to prove.
