Mustafi Shkodran - one of the strongest central defenders of Germany

It's no secret that in the German national team the central defense zone is now fully booked - there are a couple of some of the best, if not the best, defenders in the world. Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels is a combination that allowed the Germans to win the World Cup in 2014, missing very few goals. Now Hummels returns to Bayern after a long stay in Dortmund Borussia, and the duo will function not only in the German national team, but also at the club level.

However, this is only two people - what will happen if one of them gets injured? Per Mertesacker finished his career, and Benedikt Hvedes suffers from an epidemic of injuries and is already far from the same form as he was a couple of years ago. But the Germans have a decision on this matter - in fact there is also a central defender Mustafi Shkodran. This 24-year-old German with Albanian roots has not, of course, grown to the level of his two older comrades Jerome and Mats, but already demonstrates a wonderful football. Mustafi Shkodran is now a key player in the Spanish "Valencia", but he did not immediately get there - it's time to consider his biography in more detail.

The beginning of his career in Hamburg

Mustafi Shkodran was born on April 17, 1992, and his talent began to be revealed from the very early years. His first professional football school was the Hamburg School, where he gradually grew and developed, gaining more and more new skills. At the age of 15 he played for the first time for the youth squad of Hamburg, but at that time he was not considered a great talent. Shkodran spent two seasons in the youth of his club, after which it was time for change - a 17-year-old boy received an offer from Great Britain, which is an extremely attractive country for German football players (this is surprising, but true). Naturally, the young player immediately agreed and already at such an early age changed club registration. Mustafi Shkodran became a player of the youth team of Everton.

British failure

However, no matter how much the Germans are drawn to England, there is a high probability that they will not play there. Unfortunately, history shows that most often it happens - very rarely football players from Germany find a solid place in the clubs of the English Premier League. The same thing happened to Mustafi. Shkodran, photos of which were already beginning to appear on the Internet, was a rising star, which was not destined to ascend in England. It all started more than well - a 17-year-old boy was even released as a substitute in the Europa League match. But on this all - for two and a half years spent at Everton, the defender has not played more than a single match for the main team. All the games he spent for the reserve, and in the winter transfer window in January 2012 at the age of 19 years terminated the contract with the club by mutual consent. But it was not the end, it was just the beginning. Mustafi Shkodran is a football player with an incredible character, so he did not despair and decided to start everything from scratch. From the club one of the best leagues in the world, playing in Eurocups, the player moved to Sampdoria, playing in the second league of Italy.

The heyday in "Sampdoria"

It is from this moment that the main biography begins. Footballer Shkodran Mustafi was formed as a player exactly in "Sampdoria" - he went to this club very timely. The year was successful, and Sampdoria managed to get into the big leagues, so Shkodran got into a promising project, where he was already in the next year started to trust the place at the base. Naturally, not in every match - after all the twenty-year-old guy should win confidence. And he did it - already in 2013 Mustafi became a key player of the Italian club and thereby attracted serious attention from other clubs. In the summer of 2014, at the age of 22 and in the status of one of the most promising German defenders, Shkodran moved to Spain's top club Valencia, which paid him eight million euros.

Playing in the "Valencia"

Fortunately, here at Shkodran everything turned out just fine - he was taken not just as a talented player for the future, but as a player of the base, which he immediately became. He played two full seasons for this club, but things do not go very well for him. Shkodran is still more than good and is the third strongest central defender from Germany, but he has seriously passed in the last season. It is to be hoped that this is only a temporary recession and a new upsurge will follow, because Germany definitely needs this defender, and "Valencia" in many respects counts on it. However, this is not all that a biography can tell you. Shkodran Mustafi is known not only at the club level - in the national team he has already managed to get practice - and even win the award.

Performances for the German national team

In the national team of Germany Shkodran first called in 2014 for the friendly matches that preceded the World Cup. In three of them he did not participate, but in a match with the Poles he spent 90 minutes on the field and showed an excellent game. Speeches for Sampdoria and this match was made clear to coach Joachim Lev, that this player can be counted, so he was included in the application for the World Cup. There it was supposed that Mustafi would sit on the bench, but suddenly it was required his exit on the field already in the first match against Portugal - where Mustafi took not the habitual position of the right defender. As a result, he played at this position in a match with Ghana, and then in the 1/8 finals with Algeria, where he received an unpleasant injury and was forced to miss the rest of the tournament. Fortunately, Leo realized that it makes no sense to put on the right flank of a typical central defender - and almost all qualifications for the European Championships Mustafi sat on the bench, playing only in the match with Gibraltar. Ahead of the European Championship - what will Shkodran show on it?

Awards

Unfortunately, at the moment, Mustafi has only one trophy, but he is very significant - the World Cup 2014. But no one doubts that ahead of Mustafi's great future.