Lewis Holtby

Anybody watching ESPN's coverage of the Bundesliga match between Mainz and Bayern Munich couldn't have helped being impressed by the midfielder who set up the first goal in Mainz's shock win.

Two things would have struck even the most casual football watcher, firstly the composer of the player and secondly the players name. A player in the Bundesliga with an Anglo-Saxon sounding name is not unusual after all Woodcock, Hargreaves and Keegan all played on Germany and all represented England, the difference with Lewis Holtby though is that he is the captain of the German Under-21's side having worked his way up from the Under-18's.

Holtby's career in Germany, in fact his footballing history in Germany is quite astonishing. The son of an English father, who was stationed in Germany with the Army, and a German mother, Lewis was signed by Sparta Gerderath at the age of 4! By the age of 14 he had been released by Borussia Moenchengladbach for being too small. He then made his way via Alemannia Aachen to Schalke 04 who are his current 'parent club.' At the moment he is on loan at Mainz having spent part of last season on loan at Bochum.

Last year Lewis played in the Under-20 World Cup, he even scored in the Quarter Finals against Brazil.

So why the post? Well because Holtby has been such a footballing secret that until last week nobody was aware of how good he was. The performance against Bayern, coupled with articles in both the Sun and Independent and then an interview on Talksport has suddenly pushed him to the head of the queue of possible players who can solve England's current malaise. Nobody from the FA or Fabio Capello's entourage have made contact with the player, nobody has been out to Germany to watch him and next month he could well be picked in the Germany full side (or A team as it is known in Germany) and the opportunity to play for England will be lost forever.

Holtby admitted in his interview that he is split 50/50 between England and Germany, he even added that when the German Under-19's played at Windsor Park against Northern Ireland he sang along with 'God Save The Queen.'

We've been here before of course. Those of us who watched the nascent Bundesliga coverage on Channel 5 many moons ago couldn't wait to tell everybody how good Owen Hargreaves was and it wasn't until he was given a good run in the England side that people began phoning radio stations and asking why hadn't we picked him earlier. Holtby may not be the answer to our problems but he's a good player, good enough to be the captain of Germany's Under-21's, good enough to be considered for the Germany full side and that really is all you need to know.