After shisha fire, he was axed by the German FA! Klopp new boy fights back | OneFootball

He is one of the new faces in Jürgen Klopp’s second Germany squad: Vitaly Janelt. While his nomination in 2026 brought him positive headlines, things looked very different ten years ago. Back then, among others, the newspaper 'Bild' ran the headline: “Hookah causes fire in hotel room – 2 Leipzig players suspended.”

During the U19 European Championship qualifiers, Janelt caused a scandal with teammate Idrissa Touré that had far-reaching consequences. The two youth players had a shisha in their hotel room. While they were at training, it apparently caused a fire. A hotel employee noticed the blaze. Janelt and Touré initially claimed they had let other players use the room. The DFB still took firm action and sent them home. “Unfortunately, there was an incident on site in which standard professional rules were not followed. The facts were clear. Therefore, in consultation with the club, we had no other option than to send two players home for serious disciplinary reasons,” then-U19 coach Frank Kramer said about the incident.

RB Leipzig and their sporting director at the time, Ralf Rangnick, also condemned the behavior. The two had already attracted attention before for being late and careless (wrong clothing). They were therefore promptly kicked out of the youth academy. On top of that came a fine and community service in a kindergarten.

And how does Janelt look back on the story today? “At the end of the day, I’m now ten years older. I have a young daughter, everyone grows up at some point. Especially boys. Women are a bit calmer when it comes to doing stupid things. I think everyone has to learn from their mistakes. I realized that relatively quickly. What happened, happened,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

For the midfielder, his chapter with the DFB initially came to an end in 2016. He then moved from RB Leipzig to Bochum in January 2017, before taking the step to England with Brentford FC in 2020. During that time, he also made his comeback with the DFB, first with the U20s and later with the U21s. However, those appearances were also more than five years ago. It is therefore no surprise that, at 28, he speaks of his “last chance” in the Germany team. Under Jürgen Klopp, he can now prove himself and may also benefit from the fact that the new national coach once managed Liverpool FC. Janelt is convinced that this is good for him.

“Of course I would have liked to have been involved earlier and hoped for a chance. But I talked about it so often in the past that in the end I didn’t feel like talking about it anymore,” the Brentford pro also explained. However, he made clear that he did not mean this as criticism of the previous national coaches: “Brentford is not Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City, I’m well aware of that. I’m not upset with anyone. Every coach has their own ideas.”

All the more, he is happy to finally be there. “I think I’m good for a team, I see myself as a team player. I do the dirty work for the guys in front of me.”

So while Janelt is working toward a possible debut against Serbia on Thursday or at the latest against Greece on Sunday, a look at his former roommate Idrissa Touré shows how differently careers can unfold. After the 2016 shisha scandal, Touré faded into obscurity, whereas Janelt fought his way back after his mistake and, ten years later, is getting another shot with the national team.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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