Jamie Leweling in the national team: The almost perfect debut

The game was less than 100 seconds old when a player who until recently only knew the national team from television scored in the Dutch goal. Tobias Leweling was only called up to replace the injured Jamal Musiala shortly before the start of the international match phase. And it was only because his Stuttgart teammate Deniz Undav complained about muscular problems that the 23-year-old was put into the starting line-up. As coach Julian Nagelsmann revealed in the ZDF interview after the game, Leweling only found out about it shortly before kick-off.

After just under two minutes it looked as if the midfielder had made the perfect debut. But because the referee considered Serge Gnabry’s offside position to be active, he refused to recognize the goal.

Jamie Leweling just kept going

However, Leweling did not let this discourage him and after a good half hour he had the lead again, but the Dutch defender Stefan de Vrij was able to direct his shot from eleven meters past the post.

In the second half, the debutant simply continued undaunted. And after a corner taken by Kimmich, Leweling cleverly put the ball under the crossbar. This time the Dutch defense was just as powerless to counter the powerful shot as was goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. And the referee had no objections this time either.

It was the temporary highlight of a career that has only known one path in recent years: continuously upwards. In 2021 he achieved promotion to the Bundesliga with SpVgg Greuther Führt and scored his first goal in his first month in the upper house of football. The next step followed two years later: Leweling moved to Union Berlin and played in the Europa League. After just one year he moved on to VfB Stuttgart – and became runner-up. He has been playing the Champions League there since this season.

Being called up to the German national team is the logical step

So being called up to the national team was just the logical next step. The fact that he scored the goal of the day on his debut should hardly be surprising given the Nuremberg native’s stellar career.

But it’s not just a remarkable debut because of his goal. Leweling was an asset in the German game. He kept looking for space, won balls, played clever passes – and almost contributed an assist in the 83rd minute, but Mittelstädt couldn’t fit his clever pass into the visitors’ goal.

When Leweling was substituted for Robin Gosens in the 87th minute, no one had any doubts that the man of the match was leaving the pitch. So it turned out to be the perfect debut for Jamie Leweling.