Felix Keidel: Klopp's Surprise Pick for the DFB
When Jürgen Klopp walked into his first press conference as Germany head coach a few weeks ago, he didn’t bother with comfort zones. He talked about a reset, about starting again, about reputations no longer guaranteeing anything. Only a small core of players, he said, could feel truly safe. Everything else would be earned: with form, with work, with performances that actually hurt to produce.
He also let one other detail slip. A 57-man shortlist sat on his desk for his opening games in charge. Names stayed under wraps, but the message was obvious: no hierarchy was sacred, and even players who had never so much as sniffed the DFB setup were suddenly in play after three disastrous World Cups.
Now one of those left-field names has surfaced. Felix Keidel.
On Tuesday night, Bild reported that the 23-year-old SV Elversberg player had received an invitation from Klopp. A day later, kicker backed it up with its own information. No one dressed it up: this is a shock call. Keidel has only three Bundesliga appearances to his name and almost no track record at the top level. Yet he is now on the radar of the most scrutinised national team job in world football.
From Ingolstadt’s Academy to the Bundesliga in a Blur
Keidel’s rise has not been glamorous, but it has been relentless.
He joined FC Ingolstadt’s U19s in 2012 and simply never stopped climbing. Age group after age group, step by step, until he broke into the professional squad in the summer of 2022. Within months, he was no longer a prospect but a fixture.
In his first full season with the seniors, the then 20-year-old became a regular in the 3. Liga. Thirty-seven appearances, one goal, four assists. Not eye-watering numbers, but the kind of steady, dependable output that wins coaches’ trust and keeps your name on every team sheet.
The real jump came in 2025. Elversberg, still stinging from narrowly missing out on promotion against 1. FC Heidenheim and reshaping their squad, saw an opportunity. They paid a modest €400,000 to buy him out of his Ingolstadt contract and threw him straight into a dressing room in transition.
He barely blinked.
Keidel slotted into Vincent Wagner’s side and stayed there. Twenty-five league appearances, 13 of them from the start, as SVE ripped up expectations and surged to a sensational promotion to the Bundesliga. The club from Saarland rode the wave; Keidel helped power it.
In just over two years, he had climbed from Germany’s third tier to the top division. Three Bundesliga games so far, against Leverkusen, Gladbach and most recently Bayern, brought his first top-flight goal. Add a DFB Cup outing against MSV Duisburg, where he delivered two assists, and you have the thin but intriguing portfolio that has clearly caught Klopp’s eye.
It is not a long CV. But it is an upward one.
The Utility Man Klopp Can’t Ignore
So why Keidel, and why now?
Because he does almost everything.
At Ingolstadt, coaches barely found a position he couldn’t handle. His biggest advocate there, FCI coach Sabrina Wittmann, moved him around the pitch like a Swiss army knife. Right-back, left-back, central midfield, attacking midfield, half-space roles drifting wider – Keidel covered it all. His natural home is at right-back in a back four, but his education has been broad and unforgiving.
Elversberg tightened his job description a little. During the promotion campaign he primarily operated at right-back, anchoring the flank rather than roaming all over the pitch. This season, Wagner has nudged him further inside. Keidel has often lined up in defensive midfield, usually alongside Lukasz Poreba, tasked with screening, biting into duels and starting attacks from deep.
That kind of versatility is gold for any international coach, never mind one trying to rip up a failing blueprint and build something sharper in a hurry. Klopp can look at Keidel and see two, maybe three positions covered in a single squad place.
But for Germany, one role stands out above all.
The Right-Back Void Since Lahm
Right-back has haunted the national team for years.
Since Philipp Lahm’s retirement and Joshua Kimmich’s permanent move into central midfield, no one has truly nailed down the position in a back four. Hansi Flick and Julian Nagelsmann both went hunting for a solution and came back with more questions than answers.
Benjamin Henrichs and Ridle Baku at Leipzig, Josha Vagnoman at Stuttgart, even Kimmich himself shunted back out wide again at the 2026 World Cup – all of them were tried. None of those experiments lasted. Each idea looked promising for a moment, then faded, then disappeared.
The result is a glaring vacancy in a team that wants to play front-foot football but still needs security on the flanks. German football has been searching for a right-back who can both defend properly and contribute going forward, who can live in a back four without constant tactical patchwork around him.
This is where Keidel steps in.
For Klopp and the DFB, the Elversberg man will almost certainly be assessed first and foremost as a right-back. He has the defensive schooling from his club role, the engine to shuttle up and down, and the tactical education from his Ingolstadt years to interpret the position in different ways.
Is he ready to walk straight into the national team and dictate games? That is a different question. Three Bundesliga matches and a single DFB Cup tie are not much of a testing ground at the very highest level.
But Klopp did not promise a gentle evolution. He promised a reset.
So perhaps the answer to Germany’s long-standing problem on the right side of defence will not come from a Champions League star or a household name. Perhaps it comes from a 23-year-old who has spent most of his career grafting in the 3. Liga and the 2. Bundesliga, climbing quietly, learning loudly.
Perhaps, of all people, Felix Keidel is about to find out just how far that journey can go.
