HAGEN (Germany) - Germany will bring together a loaded roster for the start of their preparations for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 as nearly the entire team that won the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 title will be on board.
Head coach Alan Ibrahimagic nominated 14 players for the first camp, which will take place in Kienbaum, Germany from June 1-5. Ten of them helped Germany take the U18 continental crown last summer, the country's first-ever youth EuroBasket title.
Germany's preliminary list for FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025
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Musa Abra | Christian Anderson | Ivan Crnjac | Amon Dörries | Declan Duru |
Keenan Garner | Jack Kayil | Nicolas Kodjoe | Janne Mueller | Jordan Mueller |
Eric Reibe | Colin Schroeder | Hannes Steinbach | Tom Stoiber |
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The 14-player group is headlined by Christian Anderson and Hannes Steinbach, both of whom were named to the All-Star Five of last summer's U18 tournament. The only two players missing from last summer's team are guard Ivan Kharchenkov and center Fynn Lastring.
Kharchenkov plays regular minutes with German league reigning champions FC Bayern Munich and the playoffs start on May 17 with a possible Game 5 of the Finals scheduled for June 26. So, it's unclear if the star guard will be available for Ibrahimagic.
The 14-player pool also includes a two players from the 2007-born generation, who played at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024: Declan Duru, who also played for the U18 German team; and Ivan Crnjac.
USA-based Keenan Garner was part of the Germany team that took first place at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2022, Division B to get the country back to Division A. As was Eric Reibe, the talented center who will be attended the famed University of Connecticut next fall and also helped Germany finish third at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2023 - the country's first-ever medal in the junior level.
The only nominee without an appearance for Germany is Musa Abra, who did play as an invited player at the 2024 Youth Basketball Champions League for Porsche BBA Ludwigsburg.
After Germany conclude their training camp, they will travel to Divcibare, Serbia to play two exhibition games against Serbia on June 6 and 7.
Germany have been drawn into Group B of the FIBA U19 World Cup along with Canada, China and Slovenia. The Germans are playing in the junior World Cup for just the fourth time after finishing fifth in 1983, fourth in 198 and fifth in 2017.
FIBA