Timo Werner's move back to the Premier League on loan with Tottenham Hotspur offers a road to redemption with the once-vaunted striker's career at a crossroads.
Werner, 27, signed from RB Leipzig until the end of the season on Monday. The six-month deal includes an option to make the transfer permanent in the summer.
Much of that will depend on how well Werner adapts to life back in England. His last spell, at Chelsea, included a Champions League winner's medal, but few at Stamford Bridge would consider Werner's two-year stay from 2020 to 2022 a roaring success.
Tottenham will hope the Werner they signed mirrors the one that terrorised them over two legs in the 2019/20 Champions League. The dynamic forward scored the only goal in the away leg and tormented Serge Aurier so much at Leipzig's Red Bull Arena that Jose Mourinho replaced him with an untested 17-year-old Malachi Fagan-Walcott.
“I’m very happy to be here – I think I joined a very, very big club,” Werner told Tottenham’s website. "I spoke with the [Spurs] manager [Ange Postecoglou] and it was a really good talk.
"He gave me straight away the feeling what I need to join a club and what I want to feel when you talk to a manager.
"Also, that tactics and style, how he wants to play. For me, I thought straight away that it fits perfectly. I hope I can be the best player I can be here.”
Germany can ill afford a poor tournament, particularly on home soil. A disastrous 2022 World Cup saw the four-time champions dumped out at the group stage for a second successive time and patience with Nagelsmann is already wearing thin.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has struggled for results since taking charge of the national team. Getty
Werner could go some way to helping his former club coach. In June 2016, Nagelsmann convinced Leipzig's Red Bull owners to part with a then club record €10 million to sign the 20-year-old Werner from Bundesliga rivals Stuttgart. Nagelsmann, less than a decade older than Werner, helped nurture a talent that relied on blistering pace to get behind opposition defences from a wide left position to devastating effect.
Leipzig prospered. Werner would earn a big-money move to Chelsea while Nagelsmann would succeed Flick at perennial German champions Bayern Munich.
The moves were met with mixed success. Werner collected a Champions League medal with Chelsea in 2021, starting the final in Porto against Manchester City. It was another German international, Kai Havertz, who emerged as the hero though, scoring the only goal of the game. He was sold back to Leipzig in 2022 for £25 million, a full £28 million less than what they paid for him two years previous. Nagelsmann, meanwhile, lasted less than a year at Bayern despite guiding the Bavarians to their now customary Bundesliga shield in his first season.
Werner has started only four matches this season, scoring twice in 14 appearances across competitions. He missed Saturday's friendly with St Gallen because transfer talks were taking place with Tottenham.
His move is subject to international clearance but Werner could be available when Spurs play at Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
Tottenham are fifth in the Premier League, six points behind leaders Liverpool.
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
World Sevens Series standing after Dubai
1. South Africa
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Fiji
5. Australia
6. Samoa
7. Kenya
8. Scotland
9. France
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Canada
13. Wales
14. Uganda
15. United States
16. Russia
THE BIO
Favourite author - Paulo Coelho
Favourite holiday destination - Cuba
New York Times or Jordan Times? NYT is a school and JT was my practice field
Role model - My Grandfather
Dream interviewee - Che Guevara
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
