“I would never play for Germany again!” Former Germany player voices explosive conspiracy theory
Kerem Demirbay has made two appearances for Germany. And the midfielder apparently still regrets that to this day.
Demirbay has revealed he never really wanted to play for the German national team. He told journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu: "I wanted to play for Turkey. We courted the federation for a year and a half. But because of certain things I cannot talk about, I had to choose Germany," Demirbay said.
In the summer of 2017, Joachim Löw, then Germany coach, called Demirbay up twice. Demirbay made his debut in a friendly against Denmark in June. A few weeks later, he was part of the Confederations Cup squad that won the title in Russia.
Demirbay played only in the third group match, against Cameroon, and scored the opening goal in the 3-1 win. He believes what followed changed his international career.
"I took off my shirt and you could see my Turkey tattoo," recalled the 33-year-old. Born in Herten, Demirbay has the outline of his parents' country of origin tattooed on his shoulder blade. He did not, however, take off his shirt while celebrating the goal.
Why did Kerem Demirbay not play for Germany at the 2018 World Cup?
Despite that, Demirbay believes the tattoo was the reason he was never selected for Germany again. "That changed the dynamic, including in the media. How can a player play for Germany and have a map of another country tattooed on him? After that, I was never called up again," he claimed. He has still not come to terms with it: "You stop calling me up to the national team just when I'm really taking off? I was seen as a foreigner. I would never play for Germany again, even if they called me now."
Competition for places in central midfield was also fierce. At the 2018 World Cup, Toni Kroos, Ilkay Gündogan, Leon Goretzka and Sami Khedira occupied those positions.
Yet Demirbay had never really seen himself as German. "My blood is Turkish. My father is Turkish, my mother is Turkish – I am Turkish. My greatest regret will always be never having worn the Turkish national team's shirt."
At the start of 2025, he had struck a somewhat different note in an interview with SPOX: "I stand by all my decisions. But of course I wished I had played for Germany more often. Now that I'm experiencing what it's like to play in a Turkish stadium, how much the fans spur you on, I might have decided differently with those experiences. The emotions I experience here are different and special in another way," he said at the time.
Demirbay now plays for Kasimpasa after years as a key midfielder for Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim, followed by another two years at Galatasaray. He is a regular for the seventh-placed Süper Lig side and recently registered his first goal contribution of the season in a 4-1 win over Samsunspor.
