“I can hurt opponents” – Celtic’s Mika Baur explains what he can offer Germany | OneFootball

Celtic midfielder Mika Baur could make his Germany debut this week, having been included in Jürgen Klopp’s 25-man squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League games against Serbia (Thursday) and Greece (Sunday).

Speaking to German media on Tuesday, Baur reflected on his ambitions while with the national team.

“I’m trying to soak it all up here. Of course, you want to show what you can do, leave your mark and, ideally, play and get some minutes. But I have to earn those minutes,” Baur said, according to Bild, admitting that the call-up came as a surprise to him.

“Until I got the call, it seemed very far away to me. I knew that moving to Glasgow was the next step, but I didn’t expect it to be such a big step,” added the midfielder, who joined Celtic from Paderborn last summer.

Asked what he can add to the German team on the pitch, Baur said (via SID) that he has come to enjoy “doing the dirty work, fighting and leaving my heart on the pitch. Sprinting up and down, getting stuck into challenges,” adding that he knows how to “hurt opponents”.

"I’m now at a very high level in that regard, meaning I can have an impact both with and without the ball.” 

The son of a handball legend

The 22-year-old also reflected on being the son of handball legend Markus Baur, who won the European Championship in 2004 and the World Cup in 2007 with Germany.

“We’re a very sports-mad family! My sister has now taken a different path alongside sport and is training to become a teacher. My brother plays in Freiburg’s youth academy – he’s also very good at football,” Mika Baur said.

“We never sat around the table and said, ‘You’re going to play handball, you’re going to play football.’ Everyone just did what they wanted to do. That worked out pretty well.”

What his father accomplished during his handball career is a “huge achievement,” Baur added.

“It’s not as if my career is for nothing if I don’t reach that level. Of course, we all want to win, we all want to win titles. But he can be proud of what he achieved – not everyone manages that.”