BENGALURU: Penne. Chicken. Curry cream sauce. Hot sauce. Tzatziki. That, according to ESPN, was what Deniz Undav was eating in 2020 as part of his meals.
Not the breakfast of a potential future champion.
For a few days at the World Cup, Undav had led the race for the Golden Boot. The stocky German forward, utilised as a sub in their first two games, had scored three as well as assisting two goals.
The 29-year-old, touted to start in their final group match against Ecuador on Thursday afternoon in East Rutherford, could be back on top of the leaderboard if he adds two more goals to his tally. In a World Cup where all the big-hitters have landed blows, it's one of the wildest sentences to be written within the context of the tournament.
Even as late as March, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann and the forward had a public falling-out when the pair clashed over his supposed playing time for the national team. While the latter suggested he should be starting games, the former was of the view that the player's role would be that of an impact substitute. Less than three months later, Undav is about to start a match at the World Cup.
To truly comprehend the surrealness of the Undav story, one needn't even go back to the beginning, when he was rejected as a 14-year-old boy for being too small. At 24, he was playing for little-known SV Meppen in the third tier of German football; a long way from the glamour of the Bundesliga and a whole galaxy away from the World Cup (it was at Meppen where he was eating the above-mentioned meal).
To paint an illustration of how unique his story is, here's what the other top goal-scorers at this World Cup were doing at 24. Lionel Messi had already won the Ballon d'Or at Barcelona, Kylian Mbappe had already won a World Cup for France, Erling Haaland had already won the Champions League for Man City and Jonathan David, playing his football in Lille at the time, was spoken about as one of the best players to ever come out of North America.
Post that Werder rejection, Undav spent his childhood at an amateur club before going semi-pro at Havelse. He still had to supplement his football earnings by working shifts on the factory floor. "I had to do that job for the money because I couldn't survive on the money from the football alone," he had once told a Belgian publication.
So how did a German forward, who had slipped through the cracks, end up creating his own path back to the national team? The short answer is, well, modern football.
The goals didn't flow at Meppen (23 league goals in 69 games), but a club in Belgium's second division went deeper. Union Saint-Gilloise, now recognised as one of the teams that consistently win the transfer market by recruiting players by looking at their underlying metrics, studied his pie graphs, charts and Excel sheets. What they found was a million-dollar player in free agency. So they jumped at the chance to sign him.
Ten months later, he had played a key role in securing promotion for Union SG. A year later, they flipped him for a huge profit to Brighton in the Premier League after two successful campaigns (42 in 69). Even if it didn't work out for him in England, the Bundesliga came calling to buy back one of their own. And a return of 46 goals and 19 assists in 86 matches across the last three seasons for Stuttgart is a handsome return for a striker who was initially rejected as a child.
His late career bloom and his subsequent call-up should also be seen within the context of Germany's great No. 9 crisis. As soon as he proved his credentials at Stuttgart, Nagelsmann handed him a debut in 2024. But two years later, they are still getting used to the idea of each other. He has only played 11 times for the country. Yet, in those 427 minutes while wearing the national team's jersey, he has scored (nine) or assisted (four) 13 times (one goal or assist every 32.8 minutes). It's because the forward offers something different to every other attacking profile within the current squad. There are more technical players, players who are genuine match-winners, but Undav is less subtle and is one of the best finishers in this set-up. He's happy to not be involved in the build-up and is less elaborate when compared to the likes of Kai Havertz, the guy who currently plays No. 9.
This, right here, is the conundrum facing both Nagelsmann and Undav. The coach can point to these numbers and say the role of the impact sub suits him. The player can turn around and say, 'I deserve to start more'.
That same ESPN report mentioned that he had dropped seven kilos after he had started paying attention to his diet and nutrition. Sometimes, Undav still eats kebabs but only after big wins. He has already earned one this tournament.