Who is Julian Brandt and why is he in the Germany World Cup 2018 squad ahead of Leroy Sane?
Germany manager Joachim Low has named his 23-man squad for the World Cup in Russia with Manchester City star Sane a surprise omission
GERMANY are desperate to get out of their World Cup group in Russia with Joachim Low's controversial selections on the verge of backfiring.
Leroy Sane was the big shock omission with Julian Brandt chosen instead.
Who is Julian Brandt?
BRANDT is a 22-year-old winger who currently plays for Bayer Leverkusen.
He joined club as part of the second squad only making one appearance before moving to the senior squad.
Since 2014 he has been part of the senior squad making 132 appearances but he has so far made only 16 caps for Germany since his debut in 2016.
He was part of the Germany squad which won silver in 2016 Olympics in Rio and this season scored 12 goals for Leverkusen.
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Why has he been picked in the Germany World Cup squad over Leroy Sane?
GERMANY manager Joachim Low has spoken about his reasoning behind leaving Manchester City star Leroy Sane out of his final World Cup squad.
The 22-year-old, who has named PFA Young Player of they Year, has been dropped in favour of Julian Brandt.
Speaking to the press, Low said: "That was a very close decision between him and Julian Brandt, which was made in favor of Brandt. Draxler, Reus and Müller are set. Leroy has a huge talent.
"He will be back again from September. He had not arrived in international matches yet.
"It was a very close decision. If it was a 100 metre race, it would have been a photo finish."
Who is in Joachim Low's World Cup squad?
LOW has cut Sane, Bayer Leverkusen pair Bernd Leno and Jonathan Tah and Freiburg striker Nils Petersen from the squad.
The final squad is:
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Paris St-Germain)
Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Monchengladbach), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich)
Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Paris St-Germain), Leon Goretska (Schalke), Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich)
Strikers: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig)