It seems that Bayer Leverkusen utility man Gonzalo Castro has finally accepted that he will not appear again for Joachim Löw and the national team.
Castro made 5 appearances for Die Nationalmannschaft but the last of those was in 2007 and he has been quoted as saying: “I’m out of the picture. The coach has enough players.” He has however not officially retired which means calling up is completely not out of the question, although Castro has specified his terms: “Of course I would be delighted to be called up, but not as a full-back, and only because there aren’t enough players.” It suggests that despite his great utility the German-Spanish midfielder has had enough of playing at fullback, something he has done a lot at his club Bayer Leverkusen, and wants to concentrate on midfield.
As he was born to a Spanish mother he was asked to play at youth level for Spain by the Spanish Football Federation but after one game he decided to switch his allegiance to the land of his birth and his father. He performed solidly at the 2006 UEFA U-21 Championships in Portugal and went on to be part of the famous U-21 team that included players like Mesut Özil that beat England 4-0 in the final in 2009 in Sweden. Before the 2009 Championships he played for the first team, his first call-up came in March 2007 against the Czech Republic and he went on to play 4 more times that year but hasn’t played since.
To conclude his short questioning with Kicker he said that he was fully concentrated on Leverkusen’s upcoming trip to VfB Stuttgart at the weekend and that: “I have been training every day since Monday, improving a little every day."