Excellent start to the season at Celtic: Nicolas Kühn.
Getty Images

His name appears between Kai Havertz, Karim Adeyemi and Florian Wirtz: Nicolas Kühn. On the list of winners of the Fritz Walter Gold Medal, the now 24-year-old Celtic attacker ranks among some current national players. And if he has his way, the 2019 U-19 winner won’t stay on this list. He will be on the DFB squad list.

Not everyone in Germany is familiar with Kühn. In this country he only has professional appearances for the second team of FC Bayern in the 3rd league and for Erzgebirge Aue in the 2nd Bundesliga – and those were over two years ago. Relegation battle in the Erzgebirge instead of the premier class in Dortmund. “I clearly formulated my goals back then,” said Kühn in a kicker interview in August. “Namely that I want to get into the Champions League and then also into the national team.”

Kühn has now achieved his first goal. He made his premier class debut for Celtic two weeks ago in a 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava and contributed an assist. Overall, Kühn has already scored 13 points in nine competitive games this season. It wasn’t a competitive game in which he caused the biggest stir. The winger scored two goals in the 4-3 friendly win over Manchester City at the end of July and prepared another. Coach Brendan Rodgers later described the assist as “magical”.

Kühn’s career, which began as a sorcerer’s apprentice in the youth ranks of Hannover 96, later RB Leipzig and then Ajax Amsterdam, was able to reach the next level of maturity in Scotland. Since moving from Rapid Vienna to Glasgow in January, Kühn has taken a step forward. “It’s a lot of fun with this quality of teammates,” says Kühn, who, together with the two Japanese Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi, usually forms the three-man striker in Rodgers’ team.

Being a regular player means a lot to Kühn. “I just always wanted to play football,” he told Kicker. That’s why Aue or Rapid instead of moving to a bigger club. “It was never about money or notoriety for me. I consciously gave up a lot and perhaps wanted to get away from these big names.”

However, this means that the curtain on the big stage has not yet opened for him. On Tuesday evening that will change a bit: 80,000 in Dortmund, floodlit game, Champions League anthem. This is where Kühn can draw attention to himself. So that Schlotterbeck, Groß and Brandt don’t just remain opponents.