A man who has always had to wait a long time for his opportunities, Deniz Undav has perfected the act of grabbing them with both hands when they come. Like on Saturday, when Julian Nagelsmann was sent on as a substitute in the 60th minute in a desperate roll of the dice. FIFA World Cup Match Ivory Coast vs.
It took him just eight minutes to equalize against Germany. And then, in the 94th minute, scored their winner 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 as “too young” and then, at 17, was working eight-hour shifts in a factory as a machine operator to supplement his £120-a-week income in four semi-finals of German football.
Those days at TSV Havelse, a club in Hannover, as a 17-year-old outsized.
“When they told me in Bremen that I didn’t have a future with them because I was too young, I was heartbroken. But I didn’t give up hope. I left the family at 17 to sign for Havelse in the semi-pro regional league in Germany. There I combined playing and training with full-time work, operating a laser machine for eight hours, then I went to Factory 4. I returned home around 8pm to train and do it all again the next day,” Undau once told a Belgian outlet. told 7sur7 in an interview.
“I had to work for money to survive because I was only earning £120 a week and I couldn’t survive on football money alone.”
Undav had no doubts about the hardships he would have to put himself through to earn a living.
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“I’m a normal guy, not one of the bling generation,” Undau added in the interview when he was already an established player in the Belgian league. “I don’t have expensive taste. I don’t wear expensive designer clothes and I don’t drive a big car. I know all about working hard for a living.”
From those early days, fortune chose for the forward, who had spells with clubs such as Brighton and Hove Albion before landing at Stuttgart. He scored 19 goals and provided six assists in just 29 appearances for the club last season, making him the highest-scoring German player in any first division league worldwide in 2025-26. He was second only to Harry Kane in the Bundesliga Golden Boot race.
Even for the national team, after a late debut at the age of 27, he has scored eight goals and provided four assists in 11 games. However, he did not find a place in the starting XI. Two years ago, he was part of Germany’s squad for Euro 2024 at home but played just six minutes in total.
Even at the FIFA World Cup, Undav had to bide his time in the Bundesliga despite having an excellent season for Stuttgart.
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In both games for Germany so far, he has been brought on as a 60th-minute substitute by Nagelsmann. Both times, it has delivered.
On Saturday, when he was brought on, Germany were trailing 0-1 and the Ivory Coast were threatening to score another goal on the counter. Defeat would have made things treacherous for Germany. They are four-time champions, having won their last title in 2014, but have not progressed to the group stage in the last two editions of the World Cup.
The stew took eight minutes to calm any frayed nerves. Nadeem Amiri, another substitute who came on with Undaw, fired a brilliant pass into the box that any quarterback would be proud of. Undaw accelerated to the ball and side-footed it past keeper Yahia Fofana into the goal. Then, in the 94th minute of the game, he scored again, this time controlling a pass with his right foot before turning to the spot and driving the ball into the goal.
This was not the first time Undav came off the bench to make a difference in this World Cup. In Germany’s World Cup opener against Curacao, Undav took just four minutes after being sent off as a 64th-minute substitute for Nathaniel Browne (a delightfully deft off-foot chip to score at Browne’s feet). He scored Germany’s sixth goal 10 minutes later. Another 10 minutes later, he scored his second goal of the evening and Germany completed a 7–1 lead.
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On Saturday, even before he was asked to come in as a sub, he received the final certification. Fans in the stands at Toronto Stadium chanted for him.
“I noticed that and laughed. Even in Toronto, my name is called. As long as you do everything or a lot of things right and score goals as an attacking player, the fans will stand behind you,” added Undav before seizing the opportunity to make points after the game. “It is important for everyone to see that the players on the bench can also decide the game.”