FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — To help turn around a troubled qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann is looking to a player who would be eligible to represent the United States.
Left back Nathaniel “Nene” Brown was called up by Germany on Thursday for qualifying games on Oct. 10 against Luxembourg and Oct. 13 against Northern Ireland. Nagelsmann called him “a big talent in defense.”
These games are crucial for Germany, which is only third in its group after it lost its opening game to Slovakia last month, as it bids to reach the World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The 22-year-old Brown is eligible for both nations, but playing for Germany in a competitive game over the age of 20 would close the door on representing the U.S. in the future.
Brown was born in Germany to an American father and German mother, and he plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. He was a key part of the Germany Under-21 team which lost the European Championship final to England in June.
Brown has said previously he was contacted about potentially representing the U.S. but is happy to stay with Germany.
“Of course,” he said in a video released by Frankfurt in July, when asked if he'd thought about playing for the U.S. “There was contact as well, but I was born in Germany and I've played for the under-21s.”
With Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdiger out injured, Nagelsmann will rely on Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck to hold the defense together. Schlotterbeck returned only this month from a five-month injury layoff.
“Even if we're still missing some players we're convinced our team has the quality to do better than it has done recently,” Nagelsmann said. “With Toni Rüdiger out it's enormously important to have Nico Schlotterbeck back.”
Newcastle's Nick Woltemade could be the first-choice striker after Nagelsmann dropped Niclas Füllkrug, who hasn't scored for West Ham since April. Forward Leroy Sané misses out again following his move to Turkish club Galatasaray, while Dortmund midfielder Pascal Gross also misses out.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Mönchengladbach's Florian Neuhaus, left, and Frankfurt's Nathaniel Brown in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt at Stadion im Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany, Saturday Sept. 27, 2025. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
Frankfurt's Nathaniel Brown celebrates his side's first goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Union Berlin in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Young athletes in northern Ukraine spend their days cross-country skiing through a scorched forest, focused on their form — until a siren inevitably shatters the silence.
They respond swiftly but without panic, ditching their skis and following coaches to an underground bomb shelter.
It’s an ordinary training session at the complex that produced Ukraine’s first Olympic medalist.
Sleeping children no longer dream of Olympic glory in the facility's bombed-out dormitories, and unexploded ordnance has rendered nearby land off limits. But about 350 kids and teens — some of the nation's best young cross-country skiers and biathletes — still practice in fenced-off areas amid the sporadic buzz of drones passing overhead then explosions as they're shot down.
“We have adapted so well — even the children — that sometimes we don’t even react,” Mykola Vorchak, a 67-year-old coach, told The Associated Press in an interview on Oct. 31. “Although it goes against safety rules, the children have been hardened by the war. Adapting to this has changed them psychologically.”
War has taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian sport. Athletes were displaced or called up to fight. Soccer matches are often interrupted by air raid sirens so attendance is capped by bomb shelter capacity. Elite skaters, skiers and biathletes usually train abroad, with attacks and frequent blackouts shuttering local facilities.
But the government-run Sports Ski Base of the Olympic Reserve is open for cross-country skiing and biathlon, the event which combines skiing with shooting. The sprawling complex is on the outskirts of Chernihiv, a city two hours north of Kyiv along the path of destruction Russia's army left in its 2022 attempt to capture the capital. Chernihiv remains a regular target for air attacks aimed at the power grid and civilian infrastructure.
Several temporary structures at the sports center serve as changing rooms, toilets and coaches’ offices. Athletes train on snowy trails during the winter and, throughout the rest of the year, use roller skis on an asphalt track pocked by blast marks.
Biathletes aim laser rifles at electronic targets and, between shooting drills, sling skis over their shoulders and jog back to the start of the course, cheeks flushed from the cold.
Valentyna Tserbe-Nesina spent her adolescence at the Chernihiv center performing these same drills, and won bronze at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. It was Ukraine’s first Olympic medal as an independent country.
“The conditions weren’t great, but we had nothing better. And for us, it was like a family — our own little home,” she said inside her apartment, its shelves and walls lined with medals, trophies and souvenirs from competitions around the world.
Tserbe-Nesina, 56, was shocked when she visited the complex in 2022. Shelling had torn through buildings, fire had consumed others. Shattered glass littered the floors of rooms where she and friends once excitedly checked taped-up results sheets.
“I went inside, up to my old room on the second floor. It was gone — no windows, nothing,” she said. “I recorded a video and found the trophies we had left at the base. They were completely burned.”
Tserbe-Nesina has been volunteering to organize funerals for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in her hometown while her husband, a retired military officer, returned to the front. They see each other about once a year, whenever his unit allows him brief leave.
One adult who in 2022 completed a tour in a territorial defense unit of Ukraine’s army sometimes trains today alongside the center's youngsters. Khrystyna Dmytrenko, 26, will represent her country at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that start Feb. 6.
“Sports can show that Ukraine is strong,” Dmytrenko said in an interview next to the shooting range. “We represent Ukraine on the international stage, letting other countries, athletes and nations see our unity, strength and determination.”
The International Olympic Committee imposed bans and restrictions on Russian athletes after the invasion of Ukraine, effectively extending earlier sanctions tied to state‑sponsored doping. But a small group of them will participate in the upcoming Winter Games.
After vetting to ensure no military affiliation, they must compete without displaying any national symbols — and only in non-team events. That means Russian and Ukrainian athletes could face one another in some skating and skiing events. Moscow’s appeal at the federation level to allow its biathletes to compete is pending.
That's why many Ukrainians view training for these events as an act of defiance. Former Olympic biathlete Nina Lemesh, 52, noted that some young Ukrainians who first picked up rifles and skis at the Chernihiv ski base during wartime have become international champions in their age groups.
“Fortunately, Ukrainians remain here. They always will,” she said, standing beside the destroyed dormitories. “This is the next generation of Olympians.”
AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed to this report.
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathletes Mykola Dorofeiev, 16, and Nazar Kravchenko, 12, left, train at the ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos inside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
