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For a man who’s always been made to wait a long time for his chances, Deniz Undav has perfected the act of seizing them with both hands when they arrive. Like on Saturday, when Julian Nagelsmann sent him on as a substitute in a desperate roll of the dice in the 60th minute of their FIFA World Cup game against Ivory Coast.
It took him just eight minutes to score Germany’s equaliser. And then, score their winner in the 94th minute in one of his best nights in Germany colours.
It’s a remarkable Cinderella story for a man, who, at the age of 14 was rejected by Bundesliga side Werder Bremen for being “too small” and then, by 17, was working eight-hour-long shifts in a factory as a machine operator to supplement his income of £120 per week as a semi-professional footballer in the German fourth-tier.
Those days at TSV Havelse, a club in Hanover, as a 17-year-old shaped Undav.
“When they told me at Bremen that I didn’t have a future with them because I was too small, it broke my heart. But I did not abandon hope. I left the family home at 17 to sign for Havelse in the semi-pro regional league in Germany. There I combined playing and training with working full-time, eight-hour days operating a laser machine in a factory. I got up around 4am, went to the factory, then I went to training and got back home around 8pm before doing it all again the next day,” Undav once told Belgian outlet 7sur7 in an interview.
“I had to do that job for the money to live because I was only earning around £120 a week and I couldn’t survive on the money from the football alone.”
Undav had no qualms about the grind that he needed to put himself through to earn a living.
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“I am an ordinary guy, not at all one of the bling generation,” Undav added in the interview when he was already an established player in the Belgian league. “I don’t have expensive tastes. I don’t wear expensive designer clothes and I don’t drive a massive car. I know all about what it means to work hard to earn a living.”
Since those early days, luck’s picked up for the forward, who’s had stints with clubs like Brighton and Hove Albion before landing at Stuttgart. He scored 19 goals and gave six assists in just 29 appearances at the club last season, which makes him the top scoring German player in any first division league around the world in 2025-26. He was second behind Harry Kane in the Bundesliga golden boot race.
Even for the national team, after being handed a late debut at the age of 27, he’s banged in eight goals and given four assists in 11 games. Yet, he’s not found a place in the starting XI. Two years ago, he was part of Germany’s squad for Euro 2024 on home soil but played only six minutes overall.
At the FIFA World Cup too, Undav has had to bide his time despite having had a stellar season for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.
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In both games for Germany so far, he’s been brought on by Nagelsmann as a substitute around the 60th minute mark. Both times, he’s delivered.
On Saturday, when he was brought on, Germany were trailing 0-1, and Ivory Coast were threatening to smash another goal on the counter. A loss would have made things treacherous for Germany. They are four-time champions, winning their last title in 2014, but have not progressed past the group stages in the last two editions of the World Cup.
It took eight minutes for the Undav to calm any frayed nerves. Nadiem Amiri, another substitute who came on along with Undav, flighted a perfect pass into the box that a quarter-back would be proud of. Getting to the ball with a burst of pace, Undav volleyed it into goal with his side foot past keeper Yahia Fofana. Then, in the 94th minute of the game, he scored again, this time controlling a pass with his right foot before turning on the spot and smashing the ball into the goal.
It was not the first time at this World Cup that Undav came off the bench and made a difference. In Germany’s World Cup opener against Curacao, Undav had needed just four minutes after being sent on as a 64th minute sub to crease Germany’s fifth goal for Nathaniel Brown (with a delightfully deft outside of the foot chip with his back to the goal into Brown’s feet). 10 minutes later, he scored Germany’s sixth. 10 more minutes later, he assisted his second goal of the evening as Germany completed their 7-1 rout.
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On Saturday, just before he was asked to come on as a sub, he got the ultimate validation. Fans in the stands at the Toronto Stadium sang for him to be brought on.
“I noticed that and had to laugh. Even in Toronto my name is called. As long as you do everything or most things right and score goals as an attacking player, then the fans will stand behind you,” added Undav after the game before seizing on the opportunity to make a point. “It’s important that everyone sees that even the players from the bench can decide games.”
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