Leipzig’s Baku Has An Eye On DFB Team-Amiri Return “A Signal” By Nagelsmann

Last in November 2021

Ridle Baku firmly has an eye on a return to the German national team. For the right-back, who switched from VfL Wolfsburg to RB Leipzig in winter and established himself there as a regular player, Julian Nagelsmann’s current DFB squad serves as a motivation.

“The national coach said it very well. You have to perform and it is rewarded. There are enough examples like Nadiem Amiri, who does it well in Mainz. This is a signal – both for me and everyone else,” explains Baku in an interview with “Bild”. Amiri even stood in the starting eleven in the 2-1 (0: 1) in the Nations League against Italy after his last international match was more than four years ago.

Baku was last part of the DFB team in November 2021, at 9-0 against Liechtenstein in the World Cup qualification, he also achieved his first and so far the only international goal in four missions. For a comeback under Nagelsmann, the native Mainz may have laid the foundation stone in the past few weeks. Since moving from Lower Saxony to Saxony, he has been in ten out of twelve possible games in the starting eleven. In the Champions League, the right to play was missing for the last two games of the group phase.

“I got a lot of playing time and believe that I have already gone the next development step here and will go more. One or the other goal and a few scorer points can still be added,” says Baku, who has so far been waiting for the first direct participation in a goal.

Unlike the performance of the 26-year-old, the second half of the season went from the perspective of RB Leipzig. In the 2025 annual table, 15 points from eleven games are only ninth. Only in the last game before the international break was 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund of the change. For Baku, also a merit of the coach Marco Rose in criticism. After weak phases to change the switch, “is a quality that you have to highlight. We are very meticulously, every single player has a claim. Everyone wants to perform. If we don’t design games as we imagine, we all are angry and want to do it better.”