In 2022, Karim Adeyemi had just come off of a starring turn at RedBull Salzburg and was strongly linked to both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Ultimately, Adeyemi chose Dortmund to what many would consider to be mixed results.
Last season, Adeyemi tallied nine goals and six assists in 32 games across all competitions. For the 2023/24 campaign, however, Adeyemi has no goals and just two assists in 13 games across competitions.
Those numbers are not exactly worthy of a call-up to the German national team and DFB boss Julian Nagelsmann made the decision to leave Adeyemi home from the senior team.
However, Nagelsmann did recommend Adeyemi for the U-21 squad, but the youngster rejected the call in favor of staying with Dortmund to work on his game. That decision irked Nagelsmann per Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia):
Karim Adeyemi rejected a call-up to the U-21 national team, justifying his decision by saying that he wants to stay in Dortmund to recommend himself for more game time at BVB. Adeyemi’s decision did not go down well with Julian Nagelsmann, who demands a total commitment to the DFB from the players. Adeyemi’s chances of being in the Euros squad next summer have significantly decreased after this decision.
Ahead of the EURO 2024 competition, perhaps Adeyemi just killed off his hopes of an eventual senior team call-up.
